Charles D. Lovejoy - China’s Military Reforms: International and Domestic Implications

Chinas reform policies during the past decade have resulted in the reorganization of economic and political structures and have led to a dramatic reorientation of the nations foreign policy. These reforms have especially influenced Chinas military establishment, which is now in a period of major transition. What new paradigm is replacing the old Maoist model of Peoples War, however, is not clear. This book examines what Chinas military modernization means for the global and regional balance of power and for Chinas internal political-economic system. Specific chapters focus on changes in Chinese strategy and doctrine, developments in defense industries and military procurements, Chinas acquisition of foreign technology, its military education system, and its nuclear weapons program.

Colonel Charles D. Lovejoy, Jr., is professor of military science and commander of the Army ROTC detachment at Princeton University. Commander Bruce W. Watson is director of publications at the Defense Intelligence College. He is the editor of numerous military studies, including The Soviet Navy (Westview, 1986).

First published 1986 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Chinas military reforms.

(Westview special studies in military affairs)

Includes index.

1. China--Armed Forces. 2. China--Politics and government--1976 3. China--Foreign relations--1976-. I. Lovejoy, Charles D. II. Watson, Bruce W. III. Series.

UA835.C4468 1986 355.00951 86-7757

ISBN 0-8133-7216-X (alk. paper)

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-01041-6 (hbk)

Empires wax and wane. So opens Chinas epic novel of power politics and military strategy, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. After a century and a half of turmoil and revolution, Chinas position seems to be waxing and it is doing so in a world of rapidly shifting power balances. Structures of international systems, like empires, also rise and fall. Pax Britannica gave way to Pax Americana. Now the apparent relative decline of the postwar international structure underwritten by U.S. political, economic, and military power is a central strategic issue. The apparent relative decline in U.S. power and influence in the last decade has been a major factor in the renewal of Chinese influence in global affairs.

The prominent role of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in the celebration of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) underscores the importance of this books subject, the systemic implications of Chinas military modernization. Since October 1, 1949, Chinas role in the global balance has evolved through several stages: from a close partnership with the Soviet Union during the tight bipolar structure of the cold war, through a period of hostile isolationism in the loose bipolar structure of the 1960s, to a strategic leaning toward the United States as a counterweight to the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Indeed, as in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, China has been at the center of a classic three cornered maneuvering for the balance of power. Throughout these somewhat turbulent stages of strategic development, Chinas goal has remained essentially the samedevelopment of a modern socialist economy under communist party leadership within a favorable international environment. Policies of close identification with the Soviet Union and subsequent isolationism failed to achieve this objective. Now China has turned to the West with significant implications for the operation and structure of the international system.

The implications of Chinas military modernization and new position of relative power go beyond the simple, though hard, assessments of the rise and fall of empires, global systems, and their members. The title of this book implies a relationship between Chinas efforts to improve its military capabilities and its relationships with the outside world. National power is the sum of the components of power and the application of those components in the development of unique national security strategies.

With regard to the components of national power--general economic development, defense industry, military systems and organizations, morale, and doctrine--China is undergoing significant change. How Chinas military modernization relates to the question of change in the international structure, therefore, is the overall theme of the chapters of this work.

The scope of the term systems, as used in this book, however, is somewhat specific. While in the broadest sense, system encompasses international relations themes such as balance of power and systemic structure (bipolar, multi-polar, etc.), here it will be used in a more narrow sense in order to focus on specific changes in Chinas defense industries, military organizations and doctrines, and the mechanics of how China conducts military-related business with the outside world. The most difficult task in contemporary strategic analysis is to integrate broad and narrow gauged analyses. This book does not attempt to integrate these two levels of analysis as much as it summarizes current thought in specific areas of this question and lays the groundwork for further research.

Some discussion of the theoretical issues, however, is necessary. A more literal translation of the opening lines of the Romance may more accurately reflect the systemic nature of the issue. In the great affairs under heaven; what is in chaos must become harmonious; what is harmonious must become chaotic (Tian xia da shi: fen jiu bi he; he jiu bi fen). Chinas new strategic position within the international system will be the result of the coming together of a myriad of smaller systems of domestic and foreign policy decisionmaking, all of which have been greatly influenced by the post-Mao policies of reform set in motion by the 3rd Plenum of the 11th Central Committee in August 1978.

The most important objective of these reforms is to overcome the disastrous effects of radical Maoist policies on Chinas political and economic structures. Deng Xiaopings deft handling of PLA leadership, where support for Maoist principles and programs has remained strongest, has demonstrated his ability to create a consensus on the importance of military modernization. With regard to actual systemic improvements in the Chinese defense establishment, however, there remain two different obstacles, the lingering influence of Soviet organizational models and weapons technology, and traditional Chinese bureaucratic tendency to operate vertically with little horizontal consideration between units. China appears to be suspended between past Soviet technological and organizational influences, which it rejected, and future U.S. influence, which it fears.