The People's Liberation Army is often described as “the largest military in the world.” But depending on who you ask and what you count, the details are murky and confusing. The deeper one dives into the numbers, the more complicated the picture gets, and the greater the differences between the Chinese and U.S. systems become. Though many recent reforms have surface aspects that appear to reflect U.S. structures, the new-look People's Liberation Army does not mirror-image its American (or Russian) counterpart. Nor have its new organizations been tempered by combat.
It is critical for defense planners, military researchers, intelligence analysts, and policymakers to take the basics of the Chinese armed forces seriously. The types of people who work for the Chinese armed forces are fundamental to understanding how their systems function. Their force structure and organizational culture determine how they plan to fight and win wars. Misunderstanding the known or misinterpreting the unknown and unknowable can have adverse effects on long-range U.S. strategic planning. Little-understood forces may contribute unexpectedly to Chinese campaigns. Or, the inertia of such a large armed force may inhibit its flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.…
The remainder of this commentary is available at warontherocks.com.
Shanshan Mei, known by the pen name Marcus Clay, is a political scientist at RAND. She previously served as the special assistant to the 22nd chief of staff of the Air Force for China and Indo-Pacific issues. Dennis J. Blasko is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with 23 years of service as a military intelligence officer and foreign area officer specializing in China. From 1992 to 1996, he was an Army attaché in Beijing and Hong Kong.
