Benjamin Frohman and Jeremy Rausch
Even though the PRC’s more forceful approach in the Indo-Pacific has yielded only mixed results to date, concern is growing in the United States and capitals around the world about Beijing’s more assertive use of the PLA to achieve its regional and global goals. From the China-India border to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and the CCP’s sweeping sovereignty claims over Taiwan and the South China Sea, recent years have witnessed increasingly aggressive actions by the PLA to assert control over territory the CCP believes to be vital to the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Flashpoints have included a fatal clash on the China-India border in 2020, which saw the PRC’s first use of lethal force against India in nearly half a century; the PLA’s aggressive efforts to prevent the Philippines’ resupply of Second Thomas Shoal, which continued into 2024; and what CIA director William Burns stated publicly to be CCP general secretary and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) Xi Jinping’s instruction to the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.[1] Meanwhile, China’s security forces continue to expand their presence outside the PRC’s immediate periphery, including into the small island states of the Pacific.
Amid these tensions, the United States must update its understanding of the drivers behind the PRC’s more aggressive military posture, including the CCP’s perception of its security environment and thinking regarding the use of military coercion and force to achieve its goals. This PLA Conference volume provides in-depth analysis of Chinese leaders’ assessments of the challenges and opportunities in their external security environment, the PRC’s military and economic preparations for a future conflict, and the PLA’s evolving posture and capabilities in key regions, including around Taiwan, in the South China Sea, and in Oceania.
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