Revolution in Military Affairs with Chinese Characteristics

While China’s interest in Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) dates back to the mid-1980s, the Western hi-tech precision military action in the 1991 Gulf War; the 1999 Kosovo war; the 2003 Iraq war and the continuing Afghan campaign have all convinced it to opt for the RMA, albeit within the limits of Chinese technology, organisation, and defence budget. With mechanisation and information technology as its watchwords respectively for the next few decades, the 16th and 17th Communist Party Congress of 2002 and 2007 voted for the gradual and concerted implementation of RMA in specific areas of military doctrines, organisation and equipment. This decision is bound to impact the Asian region in the coming years. The Chinese RMA will focus on information warfare, electronic warfare, asymmetric methods, C4ISR modernisation, rapid mobility, long-range precision strikes, space warfare, missiles and joint operations. In the short term, China is poised to apply RMA in selective areas for mitigating its security concerns, and over the long-term has plans to leap-frog into more advanced areas.