By Harry Kazianis
Recent testimony forecasts what the People’s Liberation Army could look like in 2020.
For anyone who cares to delve into the deep body of literature on China’s budding military modernization program, one thing becomes clear very quickly — it is heavy on opinion and short on facts. In many respects this is to be expected. For those who are old enough to recall debates regarding the Soviet Union’s military prowess throughout the Cold War, obviously viewpoints varied dramatically. Yet, there were always a few voices that should have been listened to then and the same is true of today’s debates concerning the rise of the PLA.
Case in point. One scholar who certainly does not get enough credit but deserves your attention is Atlantic Council non-resident Senior Fellow Roger Cliff. He may not have his own blog or you might not see his writings all over the China defense blogosphere (oops), but when he writes you need to listen. Cliff, along with a whole host of scholars at the Rand Corporation, authored the first comprehensive study of China’s A2/AD strategy and, in this author’s view, deserves the lion’s share of the credit for bringing this important issue to the public’s attention. While overtaken by current events to a large extent, Entering the Dragon’s Lair is always a work I turn back to again and again when I consider China’s A2/AD strategy, even seven years after it was published. Flashpoints readers: if you don’t own it, you should.
So when Cliff testified (PDF) in front of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission recently, it was certainly on my radar. Having interviewed Cliff when I was an Assistant Editor here at The Diplomat, I knew quality analysis would be forthcoming. While much of his prepared testimony focused on how China’s growing military capabilities might be employed against U.S. forces during a clash over Taiwan (something that does not get enough attention), there were three other juicy tidbits worth extra attention.
Read the full story at The Diplomat