|
China People's Armed Police Force
The People's Armed Police Force was formed in 1983 when the PLA
transferred its internal security and border defense to the
Ministry of Public Security
(see Public Security Forces
, ch. 13).
In wartime, the armed police, as part of China's armed forces,
presumably would perform border defense and support functions in
assisting the PLA.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND PROSPECTS
Beginning in the late 1970s, China's military modernization
program achieved success in increasing China's status as a regional
power. The PLA disengaged itself from politics and concentrated its
attention on military tasks. Reforms in organization, doctrine,
education and training, and personnel practices brought the PLA
much closer to its objective of molding a modern combat force
capable of waging combined- arms warfare. Defense science and
industry became more closely integrated with their civilian
counterparts and began producing more civilian goods in addition to
modernizing PLA weaponry with foreign technology. Nevertheless, PLA
capabilities still lagged behind advanced world levels, and the
presence of potent adversaries on China's borders meant that
defense modernization would be a long-term program, probably
lasting well into the next century.
* * *
Beginning in the late 1970s, the volume of information
published on the Chinese military increased greatly. Ellis Joffe's
The Chinese Army After Mao provides a good introduction to
military modernization and changes in the PLA in the 1980s. The
role of politics in PLA development is delineated in Harlan W.
Jencks' From Muskets to Missiles; Harvey W. Nelsen's The
Chinese Military System; and Monte R. Bullard's China's
Political-Military Evolution. The Jencks and Nelsen books also
contain valuable information on PLA organization and force
structure in the early 1980s. The United States Defense
Intelligence Agency's 1984 Handbook of the Chinese People's
Liberation Army is another good source on PLA organization,
equipment, and tactics. Various aspects of military reforms in
defense policy, doctrine, training and education, defense industry,
weapons modernization, and force structure are dealt with in The
Chinese Defense Establishment, edited by Paul H.B. Godwin;
Chinese Defence Policy, edited by Gerald Segal and William
T. Tow; and China's Military Reforms, edited by Charles D.
Lovejoy and Bruce W. Watson. These books also deal with the
international implications of Chinese military power. China's
involvement in foreign conflicts is covered in Segal's Defending
China. Chinese military assistance and arms sales are treated
in China and the Arms Trade by Anne Gilks and Segal.
China as a Maritime Power by David G. Muller, and Eighth
Voyage of the Dragon by Bruce Swanson provide good overviews of
the PLA Navy.
Articles on the Chinese military appear in the general,
scholarly, and military periodical literature. Far Eastern
Economic Review and Asiaweek offer the most articles
among weekly news publications. China Quarterly, Asian
Survey, and Problems of Communism feature occasional
articles on the PLA. Useful military publications include Jane's
Defence Weekly, Asian Defence Journal, International
Defense Review, Aviation Week and Space Technology, and
Flight International. (For further information and complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of July 1987
|
