CHINA-MILITARY: CHINA'S FIRST WHITE PAPER ON MILITARY STRATEGY
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On May 26, 2015, China's State Council Information Office issued China's first white paper captioned 'China's Military Strategy'. The 9000-word White Paper referred to its military strategy of "active defense" ,stressed "strategic defense and operational and tactical offense" and stated "We will not attack unless we are attacked, but we will surely counterattack if attacked." It laid emphasis on"winning informationized local wars." The Paper highlighted four "critical security domains", including the ocean, the outer space, cyberspace and nuclear force and said the PLA Navy "will gradually shift its focus from the sole strategy of "offshore waters defense" to the combined one of "offshore waters defense" and "open seas protection". It said China will speed up the development of a cyber force to tackle "grave security threats" to its cyber infrastructure.
Affirming that a "world war is unlikely in the foreseeable future and the international situation is expected to remain generally peaceful", it noted "new threats from hegemonism, power politics and neo-interventionism" and assessed that "Small-scale wars, conflicts and crises are recurrent in some regions. Therefore, the world still faces both immediate and potential threats of local wars".
Warning of threats to China's maritime rights and interests, it said "Some of its offshore neighbors take provocative actions and reinforce their military presence on China's reefs and islands that they have illegally occupied. Some external countries are also busy meddling in South China Sea affairs; a tiny few maintain constant close-in air and sea surveillance and reconnaissance against China, the paper notes".
The Paper also noted that as Chinese national interests stretch further abroad, it will "strengthen international security cooperation in areas crucially related to China's overseas interests".
The Paper noted that China "opposes weaponization of and arms race in outer space and vows to secure its space assets" and that it "will never enter into a nuclear arms race with any other country."
It said the PLA will engage in extensive regional and international security affairs, and promote the establishment of the mechanisms of emergency notification, military risk precaution, crisis management and conflict control. Cooperation with Russian armed forces were especially mentioned with the Paper saying the PLA will foster a comprehensive, diverse and sustainable framework to promote military relations.
On cooperation with the US, it said China intends to build a "new model of military relationships" that conforms to the two nations' new model of major-country relations. This will include strengthening defense dialogues, exchanges and cooperation with the US military, and improving the mechanism for the notification of major military activities as well as the rule of behavior for safety of air and maritime encounters.
Zhao Weibin, a researcher on China-US military relations with the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, said though the paper named the US, Japan and some neighbors which pose security challenges, the Paper has not been written to counter them.
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