The Chinese Military

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Every year since I started my China Studies Program, I've noted western pollies asking for the Chinese government to be more transparent in regard to the Chinese military.

I'm not quite sure what 'being transparent' means, does it mean giving the west access to all military secrets? Or, what?

During my recent visit to China I can't recall seeing one soldier.

But, due to the CICA - Asian security conference, held in Shanghai while I was in China, there were lots of extra police on the streets, maybe because the Russian President Putin attended. But the most exciting thing to happen was (apparently) the finalisation of negotiations on the supply of Russian energy to China. The first tranche of gas supply and the neccessary pipelines, worth 400 Billion in US dollar values, with a further tranche of 400 billion being discussed.

So noting lots of piks of Chinese Military engaged in training exercises in Chinese newspapers lately, I thought I'd help out those western questioners, and give some 'transparency' to the Chinese PLA (i.e. People's Liberation Army - the name used for the military during the long struggle for supremacy in China).

First off, female crew members of the PLA Navy.

The piks were taken by Xinjiang TV, for a program on the Liaoning aircraft carrier shown recently.

The Liaoning is China's only aircraft carrier in operation. It was refitted based on an unfinished carrier of the former Soviet Union. The refitted carrier was delivered to the navy on Sept. 25, 2012.

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And some more female members of the PLA undergo training:

These women soldiers were from a communication company under the command of 13th Combined Corps of the Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA)

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In case you know nothing about the world's most populous nation, Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province right down in the south of China, not far from Myanmar and Bangladash.

In these next piks we jump right up to the north of China, to the province known as Inner Mongolia, which shares a border with Russia and Mongolia. In the map, Inner Mongolia is shown in color.

The next image speaks of tank training on the huge grasslands of this northern steppe area.

The captions describe the exercise as:

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has carried out an integrated tank combat drill since the middle of May on grassland of Inner Mongolia to test its capabilities in complex hinterland terrain.

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More piks from Inner Mongolia.

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This next group is described as a training exercise for an airborne combat unit of the PLA. It was held in Hubei, central China.

Scott77

fulltimestudent,

Thank for updates about china and its PLA. I think, China is getting modernized each day. Having one only aircraft carrier certainly makes it vulnerable to cruise missile attack. In my opinion, air superiority is the key to maintaining superpower status. China unfortunately, is still behind this game.

Scott77

prologos

fulltimestudent your map shows taiwan already as part of China, the big one? included in a new barrier reef shielding toward the west?

Jeannette

Thanks for sharing, and trying to educate me.

fulltimestudent

prologos:

fulltimestudent your map shows taiwan already as part of China, the big one? included in a new barrier reef shielding toward the west?

Interesting! the map came from google images for Hubei province. I checked back and found that the original website (that included the map) was from a agriculture page by the Department of Plant Nutrition, College of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences of China's, Agricultural University in Beijing (web reference: http://www2.dijon.inra.fr/mychintec/Target_Regions/Target1.html ).

How it was included on the google images for Hubei is not clear (to me), unless google have some automated system that trawls for information on each topic.

Anyway, all P.R. Chinese maps routinely include Taiwan as part of the P.R.C., as Taiwan is regarded as a renegade province. The R.O.C. (Taiwan) may still have Government departments that include responsibility for sections of the mainland. That's another result of the 'Cold War.'

The 'reef' as you called it puzzled me at first, until I realised that it could be an attempt to reproduce the so-called 'nine-dash line., which more or less sets out the limits of Chinese influence prior to the first Opium war (1839-1842).

fulltimestudent

Scott77

fulltimestudent,

Thank for updates about china and its PLA. I think, China is getting modernized each day. Having one only aircraft carrier certainly makes it vulnerable to cruise missile attack. In my opinion, air superiority is the key to maintaining superpower status. China unfortunately, is still behind this game.

Scott77

Some observers no longer seem to think that carrier groups have the value that they did 20 years ago. Some modern developments may have made carriers much more vulnerable. I guess that opinion applies to full scale war. Still, I'd be inclined to think that the ability to sail a carrier group close to a target zone and have all the apparatus of a air base has advantages (as in Iraq at this moment).

However, I'm not sure that such a move is what the Chinese have in mind. I suggest that the goal (at this stage) is being able to protect shipping routes over which Chinese commerce moves.

It is rumoured that a second carrier is under construction at a shipyard in Shanghai. So far( as far as I know), no-one has come up with definitive images. (or, if they have - they are not sharing.)

If that rumour turns out to be true, I would not be surprised if this second carrier turns out to be something like the Japanese Hyuga helicopter carriers.

The Hyūga-class helicopter destroyer ( ひゅうが型護衛艦 Hyūga-gata-goei-kan ? ) is a type of helicopter carrier built for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). [1] [2] Two ships of the class were built to replace the two 7,000-ton Haruna-class helicopter destroyers. The new ships are the largest combatant ship operated by Japan since the Imperial Japanese Navy was superseded by the JMSDF. [1] The first ship in the class, Hyūga , was commissioned on March 18, 2009 and stationed in Yokosuka , near Tokyo . [3] The second ship, Ise , went into service on March 16, 2011 and is stationed at Kure . (Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hy%C5%ABga-class_helicopter_destroyer).

Their function is anti-submarine warfare, which I think fits in more neatly with what the Chinese military goals may be at present.

The Chinese Military

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