China’s military goal is to stand neck and neck with US: ex-PLA colonel Zhou Bo

South China Morning Post  |  Alcott Wei, Amber Wang

Former People’s Liberation Army Senior Colonel Zhou Bo stated in an interview that China’s ultimate military objective is to achieve parity with the United States armed forces rather than establish global dominance. The People’s Liberation Army continues to advance its modernization framework toward the key 2027 centenary milestone, which aims to accelerate mechanization, informatization, and intelligentization across all combat branches.

This strategic push reflects Beijing's effort to counterbalance American military posture in the Indo-Pacific while addressing operational dilemmas associated with long-term peacetime conditions. On the Taiwan issue, Zhou emphasized that Beijing maintains its foundational preference for peaceful reunification while preserving military deterrence capabilities against foreign intervention and secessionist forces. As strategic competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies, the risk of accidental encounters in surrounding waters underscores the urgency for robust bilateral risk-reduction protocols. Ultimately, China’s defense trajectory signals a persistent commitment to matching Western operational proficiency, shaping long-term regional stability, deterrence dynamics, and geopolitical balances across the maritime commons.

Comment

The People's Liberation Army's focus on achieving regional parity rather than global power projection reflects a structural commitment to localised area-denial operations. Aligning force development with the Central Military Commission's 2027 centenary objectives prioritises joint-force integration across the Eastern Theatre Command over distant expeditionary deployment. This orientation exposes a tactical trade-off, where operational dominance inside the First Island Chain limits sustained surface fleet survivability in open ocean environments.

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