Honored to be Quoted in Royal Danish Defence College Report: “China as a Global Military Power”
Camilla T. N. Sørensen and Adam Buschard, Kina som global militær stormagt – militærstrategiske perspektiver for dansk forsvar [China as a Global Military Power—Military Strategic Perspectives for Danish Defense] (Syddansk Universitetsforlag i samarbejde med Forsvarsakademiet [Southern Danish University Press in collaboration with the Royal Danish Defence College], 10 June 2025).
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Kina som global militær stormagt –militærstrategiske perspektiver for dansk forsvar
[China as a global military superpower – military strategic perspectives for Danish defense]
The extent to which China can deliver force sustainability over increasing distances to further its burgeoning interests is one of the key questions of the 21stcentury geopolitics – with major consequences for Beijing’s role and footprint in the world and for U.S. and allied interests.1
Erickson, A. (2024) Geography Matters, Time Collides: Mapping China’s Maritime Strategic Space under Xi, NBR Brief (Mapping China’s Strategic Space), 01. august 2024. Tilgængelig på: https:// strategicspace.nbr.org/geography-matters-time-collides-mappingchinas-maritime-strategic-space-under-xi/ (Set 21. november 2024).
Summary
China will become a more powerful global player militarily. The ambition of the supreme Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, is that by 2049 the Communist Party will have a “world-class military”. This entails enabling the Chinese military – the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – to conduct operations in the full spectrum of conflict on a global scale.
This report analyses China’s path towards global military great power status and initiates a debate on the military-strategic perspectives for Danish defence. In so doing, the report places analytical emphasis on three selected military capabilities which are central to the ability to project global military power in the full spectrum of conflict – namely aircraft carriers, operational logistics, and command and control.
The report shows that there is still a long way to go before the PLA is capable of conducting long-term, high-intensity military operations globally. Still, as part of this process, we will see the Chinese military carry out larger and more complex exercises and operations outside its own neighbourhood. This means that the Danish Armed Forces will increasingly encounter the Chinese military – and that China will influence the framework of Danish defence.
Such encounters with the Chinese military will be diverse and therefore call for different military practices and considerations. Based on priority areas and challenges for Danish defence, the report highlights four types of encounters with the Chinese military: 1) bilateral encounters in the Arctic, 2) multilateral encounters, for example in peace and stabilisation operations, 3) encounters in coalition and alliance contexts, ranging from Danish support for the US in the event of military conflict in the Taiwan Strait to the wide range of challenges facing NATO due to the expected increased Chinese military presence in Europe’s immediate vicinity and China’s strengthened strategic partnership with Russia, and 4) encounters in the form of new conditions and requirements for the development of the operational concepts, doctrines and priorities for force development within the Danish Armed Forces.
The US military is focussed on China. The imagined future war that is being planned for in the US has China as the enemy. This is decisive for the type of war – including standards for how wars are fought – which, due to Denmark’s bilateral alliance with the US and NATO membership, also frames the development of the Danish Armed Forces. Denmark cannot influence the relationship between the US and China, and the Danish Armed Forces cannot avoid encounters with the Chinese military. We must therefore be as well-prepared as possible. This calls for more knowledge and competences on China in the Danish Armed Forces. In particular, insight into the development of the Chinese military is vital to the Armed Forces’ ability to handle encounters with the PLA in a strategic and well-thought-out manner.
