China remains energetic on the pushing-neighbors-around front and projecting-global-power front, determines the DoD in a just-released 2023 report, “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” (U.S. Department of Defense, October 19, 2023).
The PRC’s persistent belligerence is one of several developments outlined in the congressionally mandated report. The report also provides a detailed overview of China’s current military structures and capabilities.
The report finds that in 2022, the PRC increasingly turned to the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] as an instrument of statecraft. Throughout the year, the PLA adopted more coercive actions in the Indo-Pacific region, while accelerating its development of capabilities, including its nuclear, space, and cyberspace capabilities; deepening military ties with Russia; and strengthening its ability to project power in the Indo-Pacific region and globally. At the same time, the PRC largely denied, cancelled, and ignored recurring bilateral defense engagements, as well as DoD requests for military-to-military communication at multiple levels.
Among the findings:
● “Between the fall of 2021 and fall of 2023, the United States documented over 180 instances of PLA coercive and risky air intercepts against U.S. aircraft” in the Indo-Pacific region.
● China’s bullying of Taiwan has intensified. The huffing and puffing includes “ballistic missile overflights of Taiwan, increased flights into Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone, and large-scale simulated joint blockade and simulated joint firepower strike operations.”
● China’s “coercive and risky” targeting of foreign aircraft and vessels in 2022 made use of “lasing; reckless maneuvers; close approaches in the air or at sea; high rates of closure; discharging chaff or flares in close proximity to aircraft; and ballistic missile overflights of Taiwan.”
● China has further developed its military capabilities “in space and cyberspace under the PLA’s Systems Department (SD).”
● As it pursues a “no limits” partnership with Russia, China “has attempted a discreet approach to providing material support to Russia for its war against Ukraine.”
● China has “more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023” and may have more than a thousand nuclear warheads by 2030.
● “The PRC may be exploring development of conventionally-armed intercontinental range missile systems that would allow the PRC to threaten conventional strikes against targets in the continental United States.” May be?
You can download a PDF of the 192-page report from media.defense.gov.
