Ten Reasons Why China Will Have Trouble Fighting a Modern War
Based on my own assessment, I believe that today’s PLA has significant strengths and compensating “workarounds” in addition to weaknesses—particularly vis-à-vis prioritized Near Seas missions. But the issues that Dennis Blasko raises here are significant and demand deep analytical consideration.
Dennis J. Blasko, “Ten Reasons Why China Will Have Trouble Fighting a Modern War,” War on the Rocks, 18 February 2015.
The introduction of new weapons and platforms into the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has captured the attention of much of the world for well over a decade. However, new equipment is only one element of the PLA’s long-term, multi-dimensional modernization process. There is much to be done and no one understands this better than the Chinese themselves. Based on what PLA commanders and staff officers write in their internal newspapers and journals, the force faces a multitude of challenges in order to close the perceived gaps between its capabilities and those of advanced militaries.
New weapons, increasing defense budgets, and recently corruption tend to generate headlines in the Western press, but at least 10 other factors raise serious questions about the PLA’s current ability to fight a modern war against an advanced enemy (some of which are discussed in a new RAND report, to which I contributed a collection of sources):
- Shared Command Responsibility …
- Army-Dominated Chain of Command and Force Structure …
- Too Many Non-Combatant Headquarters …
- Inexperienced Commanders and Staff …
- Understaffed Battalion Headquarters …
- NCO Corps Still Under Development …
- Multiple Generations of Equipment in Units …
- Insufficient Realism in Training …
- Air-to-Ground Support Still Under Development …
- “The Peace Disease”: Lack of Combat Experience ….
