United States, and Japan. Nonetheless China maintains that she pursues an independent foreign policy, free from the domination of any other country, and perceives the ambitions of both superpowers to be the main causes of instability in the world and the greatest threats to world peace. China counts herself a member of the Third World.
The Armed Forces
“You may have won the empire on horseback, but you cannot govern it on horseback”.
(Adviser to the Han court)
The Armed Forces consists of the People's Liberation Army (PLA a name applied to all three arms of service) and the Militia. The concept of "people's war", in which the PLA together with the Militia would fight a mainly defensive war in the event of a major invasion of China, is still an important element in Chinese strategic doctrine. Much of China's military equipment is based on Soviet designs of the 1950s and is now out of date. The modernisation of national defence is one of the "four modernisations", but China's ability to produce modern armaments suffers from both economic and technological constraints. Although military spending is difficult to gauge precisely, it has probably remained fairly static over recent years. All-round economic development is regarded as a precondition for military modernisation. However, reform in the organisation of the PLA took a big step forward in 1985. It was announced that manpower is to be reduced by 1 million (a 25% cut). The eleven military regions into which China was divided have been reorganised and steamlined into seven. Two-thirds of the demobbed regular soldiers have been officers. The trend is to replace the older officers who are retiring with younger, better-educated ones. Conscription regulations were published in 1985 – volunteers are now fewer, due to the success of the economic reforms in the countryside. New uniforms were unveiled to replace the previous baggy green and blue fatigues.
With the reduction in numbers in progress, it is difficult to know present army strength. In autumn 1985 it numbered some three million. It is deployed through the seven military regions under the control of the Ministry of National Defence, and is divided into Main Forces for strategic defence and Local Forces for local defence. The Militia, divided into backbone and primary Militia and believed to total more than 10 million, serves as a reserve for the Army. This, too, is to become a smaller, more professional body. The reorganisation of the military regions has increased their power and combat effectiveness. The command of armoured, artillery and chemical warfare units has been transferred to the military regions. Only the second Artillery corps (rocket unit) continues to be commanded by the General Staff headquarters.
The Chinese Navy numbered some 350,000 in autumn 1985, with 2 nuclear-powered submarines, 107 diesel submarines and 44 major surface combatants. It is divided into three fleets (the North, East and South Sea Fleets) of which the North is the strongest. It is still primarily a coastal defence force, though with the number of its Luda class destroyers slowly increasing, it is beginning to develop a "blue-water" capability. The Chinese Naval Air Force comprises some 1,000 aircraft, most of which are intended for the defence of naval installations.
The Air Force is basically an air defence force with few bombers in a total of about 5,300 combat aircraft, the majority of which are Chinese-produced MiG-19s. The half million personnel of the Air Force include more than 200,000 assigned to aircraft control and warning, surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites and anti-aircraft (AA) units. China's few SAM sites are concentrated near industrial, population and military centres.
The Chinese nuclear testing programme began in 1964. China now has about 300 nuclear warheads which can be delivered by both land and sea missiles as well as by conventional bomber aircraft. The Chinese have a small number of inter-continental ballistic missiles and claim to have successfully carried out the testing of a submarine launched ballistic missile in 1985. The "Long March 3" rocket has proved successful in launching satellites, and the Chinese government is offering launch facilities for sale abroad.
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