Image source: topwar.ru
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Council, recently signed an order to publish trial plans for military operations. These operations include such tasks as disaster relief, campaigns to provide humanitarian assistance to the population, maintaining peace, protecting China's national sovereignty, security and interests. The plans also include measures for the protection and protection of infrastructure facilities by the PLA. For example, we are talking about the protection of pipelines.
The Chinese authorities expect to neutralize the existing risks and provide a legal basis for actions in the name of national interests. According to the Chinese edition of Global Times, the document plays an important role in determining the functions of the Chinese armed forces in a changed era.
In the third decade of the XXI century, the People's Liberation Army of China has already had to participate in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and before it performed many operations to save people from natural disasters, including earthquakes and floods. Also, the Chinese armed forces were puzzled by the issue of maritime escort in troubled waters, such as areas of Somalia and Nigeria in Africa.
In some cases, the Chinese army solved humanitarian tasks outside the country as well. For example, the Chinese military helped with medical equipment to the island of Tonga, which was severely affected by the volcanic eruption and tsunami. In the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, Chinese naval forces carry out escort missions for civilian vessels. They are ready to carry out tasks to combat terrorists and pirates in different parts of the globe, the Chinese edition emphasizes.
By participating in operations outside the country, the Global Times writes, the Chinese armed forces can also prevent risks that, in an unfavorable development of events, could spread to China itself. Thus, they must ensure the safety of transport routes for the import of oil and other energy resources to China, and protect China's foreign investments and projects.
The plans signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to use the PLA create a legal basis for conducting military operations other than war. There is no doubt that if China plans to return the island of Taiwan to its control, then officially this operation will also not have the status of war. But even without Taiwan, China needs legal support for its actions in other regions, for example, in Pakistan, where the Gwadar port is being built, for which the Chinese authorities have very big plans.
