How Xi Jinping's plans to modernize the Chinese army will change the military situation At the XX Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chairman of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping said that Beijing will "work faster" in the direction of modernization of "military theory, personnel and weapons."
What is the current state of the Chinese armed forces and what are the immediate prospects for the military construction of the PLA - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.Ru" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
At the twentieth congress of the CPC, which is due to end on October 22, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for accelerating the modernization of the national army, turning it into an advanced world-class armed forces.
Since the mid-1990s, China has rapidly transformed its armed forces from an outdated institution into a sophisticated fighting machine, optimized, as they usually say in the United States, to combat American assets in the field of force projection.
Military theory
Chinese military publications indicate that the PLA has recognized that war is no longer a competition between individual units, weapons, services, or even specific weapons of competing opponents, but rather a competition between numerous opposing operating systems.
Beijing realized this after observing the operations of the United States after the end of the Cold War over the next two decades and the revolutionary role of information systems in this context. Systems thinking has a huge impact on how the PLA is currently organized, equipped and prepared for future combat operations.
Such a method of armed struggle is unique for modern warfare, as are the battlefields on which the conflict is being waged. This is called systemic confrontation.
While achieving dominance in one or more physical areas was sufficient for the success of combat operations in the past, systemic confrontation requires achieving "comprehensive dominance" in all areas or on the battlefields.
In this perception, operating systems, as the PLA suggests, should be sufficiently multidimensional and multifunctional to wage war in all these areas. The current PLA victory theory is based on the successful conduct of a system destruction war, which seeks to paralyze and even destroy the most important functions of the enemy's operational system.
According to this theory, the enemy "loses the will and ability to resist" if his operational system cannot function effectively. This theory of victory is enshrined in China's latest White Paper on Defense, which states that "the PLA's integrated combat forces should be used to win in system-versus-system operations with a predominance of information, precision strikes and joint operations."
Such an operating system is capable of waging war simultaneously in all seven areas - land, sea, air, space, cybernetic, electromagnetic and psychological spheres. This requires joint operations and seamless connection of all systems and divisions through an extremely reliable information network, according to the PLA.
For this purpose, a Strategic Support Force was created. Their task is to unite and improve the efforts of the PLA to achieve dominance in the space, cybernetic, electromagnetic and, possibly, psychological spheres.
Strategic nuclear forces
Recently, China has achieved very impressive results in improving its strategic nuclear forces. China's strategic Nuclear Forces have quite impressive both combat and numerical strength.
All DF-31 and DF-41 and most of the DF-5 are multicharged (up to 10 combat units), so China obviously has at least 500 nuclear warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles alone (possibly up to 1000). For reference, the DF-41 ICBMs can fly to Moscow in 12 minutes, to London in 16 and to New York in 21 minutes.
Chinese BRSD (medium-range ballistic missiles) can be used in both nuclear and conventional equipment, but there is obviously at least one nuclear warhead (warhead) for each, which increases the total number of nuclear warheads by at least 300 more units.
The PLA Navy has up to 100 ballistic missile submarines (SLBMs) JL-1 and JL-2, which together can carry up to 350 nuclear warheads. In addition, many modern Chinese multipurpose nuclear submarines and surface ships are capable of carrying sea-based cruise missiles in both nuclear and conventional equipment.
We will get about 400 more nuclear warheads, assuming that they are available for at least 10% of cruise missiles.
In addition, the PLA Air Force has at least 400 nuclear bombs for H-6, JH-7 and Q-5 attack aircraft.
However, even in this case, China's nuclear forces will be smaller than those of the United States, which has about 3,800 warheads ready for action, and even more in reserve.
Even the administration of former US President Donald Trump called on China to join the US-Russia nuclear arms treaty in order to limit the further increase in the number of nuclear weapons between the three countries, but Beijing categorically refused.
The increase in the combat and numerical strength of the strategic nuclear forces is part of a broader effort by Beijing to assert greater power on the world stage with the goal of rising to the level or surpassing the United States as a global superpower by 2049.
Air Force
Currently, the PLA Air Force is experiencing a kind of rebirth of the N-6 bomber, created on the basis of the Soviet Tu-16. Production of N-6N/M/K variants capable of carrying 2, 4 and 6 CJ-10 KRVB, respectively, has been launched.
A total of 150 to 190 cars of these three variants were produced, and the N-6K/M series is still in progress. Production of the H-6N bomber has begun, which can carry the CJ-100 supersonic KRVB, as well as the DF-21D ballistic anti-ship missile.
The third chain of islands extends to the Hawaiian Archipelago and the coastline of Australia. In this case, the bombers will operate from airfields in mainland China.
The N-20 strategic bomber will be equipped with air-to-ground missiles with nuclear and conventional warheads. The take-off weight of the machine will be at least 200 tons, and the combat load will be up to 45 tons. The US Department of Defense estimates the flight range of China's new strategic bomber H-20 as 8,500 km (5,300 miles).
It is expected that the promising bomber will fly at subsonic speeds and will potentially be able to launch four powerful hypersonic cruise missiles manufactured using stealth technology.
A series of new-generation Chinese aircraft, named 20, includes the inconspicuous Chengdu J-20 multi-purpose fighter, the first Chinese heavy military transport aircraft Y-20 and the Harbin Z-20 multi-purpose helicopter (looks like a complete clone of the American Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter).
Thus, Chinese bombers are capable of simultaneously lifting not only all 400 previously mentioned nuclear bombs (and their number has only increased recently) and at least 300 air-launched cruise missiles in nuclear equipment.
Fleet, the largest in the world
The People's Republic of China currently has the largest navy in the world - with a total of more than 350 ships and submarines, including more than 130 surface ships of the main classes. For comparison, the combat strength of the US Navy is just over 290 ships.
The PLA Navy mainly consists of modern multi-purpose platforms with advanced anti-ship, anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons, intelligence and communications equipment.
The Chinese carrier fleet, equipped with advanced systems such as electromagnetic catapults, can provide air cover for amphibious forces during the invasion of Taiwan or even confront the US Navy in a battle of aircraft carriers with aircraft carriers, which hypothetically could happen for the first time since World War II.
China is actively building a new generation of sophisticated, well-armed cruisers, destroyers and corvettes. These include, for example, Type 055 Renhai class destroyers. The destroyers of this project are the largest in the world after the American destroyers of the Zamvolt type.
Submarines are a key element of Chinese naval power. It is expected that the PLA Navy will receive even more attack submarines with diesel and nuclear power plants.
In addition to the already existing four Type 094 submarines armed with 12 JL-12 ballistic missiles each, a new project submarine is already on the way.
Chinese boats of the new generation Type 096, the construction of which began in the early 2020s, presumably, will carry ballistic missiles of submarines (SLBMs) of a new type.
It is expected that the PLA Navy will use submarine missile cruisers of types 094 and 096 at the same time, and by 2030 it may already have up to eight such vessels, the document emphasizes.
According to Pentagon officials, China's growing ability to launch sea-based cruise missiles for strikes against coastal targets (LACM) is particularly threatening. This allows Chinese surface ships and submarines to strike key bases of the US armed forces in the region. For example, such as the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean and in the future - even beyond this water area.
In the coming years, the PLA Navy is likely to deploy LACM-type missiles on its new cruisers and destroyers, as well as on experimental Type 093B nuclear submarines.
In 2019, China launched its first large landing ship of the Yushen class. The PLA Navy also receives various auxiliary vessels for equipment, including tankers, support vessels, reconnaissance ships and even the first polar icebreaker.
Taiwan
At the 20th CPC Congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that "the wheels of history are rolling towards the reunification of China." Comrade Xi stressed that Beijing will strive for "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan, a self-governing island that it considers part of its territory, but will never give up the right to use force.
In March last year, Admiral Philip Davidson, then head of the Indo-Pacific Command of the US Armed Forces, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that China wants to be able to seize Taiwan by 2027.
On September 7, Pentagon Deputy Minister for Policy Affairs Colin Kahl said that the Pentagon's assessments of the situation around Taiwan have not changed by and large, and he hopes that Xi Jinping will learn a lesson from Russia's "uncertain invasion of Ukraine" and "that, hey, maybe we shouldn't" annex Taiwan.
"I don't think they've sped up their clock," Kahl said of the Chinese government. "It is not surprising that Xi Jinping has given his military until 2027 time to develop military capabilities for forcible reunification with Taiwan, if he makes such a decision. But I didn't see any signs that he made such a decision. In the meantime, our policy will remain the same." His words are quoted by DefenseNews.
Mikhail Khodarenok
