The Chinese Military Is Accelerating Its Modernization Plans

Photo: World Affairs Board

Jamestown Foundation: The PLA Accelerates Modernization Plans

China is moving up plans for the completion of its military reforms and modernization. Shortly after the close of the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping announced that the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) would essentially complete by 2035. Subsequent reporting confirmed that this announcement represented an acceleration of the military modernization plan, shortening the original plan’s third stage by 15 years from 2049 to 2035 (Xinhua November 24, 2017). However, Xi added that the PLA would not transform into a world-class military until mid-century (Xinhua, October 27, 2017).

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Update: The Early Returns of China's Military Reforms (The Diplomat)

WNU Editor: The Chinese are spending the money .... Future of the Chinese Defense Industry to 2022 (Business Wire), and their focus on smaller mobile units backed with intense firepower is emulating what the Americans have been doing for the past few years. The days of mass Chinese attacks with basic weapons is a thing of the past.

Why Did The Chinese Government Purge Its Top General?

Image Credit: DoD photo by D. Myles Cullen/Released

Don Tse, The Diplomat: Why General Fang Fenghui Was Purged

Fang, the former chief of joint staff, has close ties to disgraced top generals who are accused of attempting a coup.

During a dinner party with the family of ex-Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairman Guo Boxiong at Beijing’s Minzu Hotel, General Fang Fenghui proclaimed: “I’ll kill in one shot whoever dares to remove the old leading cadre.” Fang’s bluster came after Xu Caihou, the other former CMC vice chair, was officially placed under investigation in 2014, according to an August 31, 2017 report by Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.

Fang never got around to successfully defending Guo. Guo was officially brought in for corruption in April 2015, and sentenced to life in prison in July 2016. Meanwhile, Fang, who had joined President Xi Jinping for his Florida meeting with President Donald Trump in April and signed a new Sino-U.S. military agreement in August, was abruptly removed as CMC chief of joint staff and disappeared from public view just days before the Ming Pao report.

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WNU Editor: This is one of the most in-depth analysis that I have read so far on why was General Fang Fenghui arrested. Were the Generals planning a coup? We will probably never know the answer to that question .... at least for the next few decades.