China does not consider India as a major threat, given the prevailing asymmetry in the Comprehensive National Power between the two.

Maj Gen GG Dwivedi retd

THE Chinese military is shifting its focus to winning wars against stronger opponents amid mounting challenges. According to a South China Morning Post report, President Xi Jinping, who is also the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s highest defence body, has directed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to enhance its strategic capabilities to defend the country’s sovereignty and developmental interests.

Xi unveiled the new directive while commemorating Deng Xiaoping’s 120th birth anniversary on August 22. He highlighted Deng’s vision for the PLA — which was instrumental in developing it into a strong, modernised and well-organised force — emphasising the importance of ‘fewer but better troops’. General Miao Hua, a member of the CMC, stated while commenting on the strategic shift, “In the new journey, we should focus on strengthening capabilities to defeat strong enemies and opponents.”

A recent article in the PLA Daily, while referring to Deng’s 1980 strategic judgement that “a world war can be postponed or avoided”, noted that China now faces great changes unseen in a century. It asserted the need for the armed forces to remain vigilant and maintain strategic clarity on the possible risk of war, make full preparations for military struggle, effectively deter war and resolutely win it.

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The Chinese leadership has refined its warfighting doctrines of winning local wars since the 1990s through white papers and strategic guidelines. The first ‘White Paper on National Defence’ was published in 1998. Following the release of ‘White Paper on National Defence (2006)’, the PLA adopted the ‘local wars under informationised conditions’ doctrine to match technologically superior adversaries. Through the ‘informationised war’ doctrine, China sought to impose high costs on conventionally superior opponents by targeting command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) networks.

The recent directive to the military to prepare for wars against strong enemies marks another strategic shift, primarily as a response to the challenges China is facing, both in the maritime domain and on the land borders. Incidentally, Xi, on assuming power in 2012, had initiated a slew of deep-rooted military reforms as he had envisioned the PLA to play a key role in realising the ‘China Dream’ of a prosperous and powerful China by the middle of the century. Sovereignty was identified as one of the key national objectives. Besides fostering nationalism, it was to ensure the security of periphery and the integration of Taiwan and all claimed territories with the motherland.