China's defence white paper: peace, paranoia, and a paucity of details

It was with some relish that I started reading a translation of China's defence white paper this morning. Entitled 'China's National Defense in 2010', the document was published in English on the China Daily web site on 1 April 2011. As the long, chunky paragraphs rolled slowly along, my hopes of fascinating details soon diminished.

Unusually for a document about military affairs the paper mentions not a single weapons system and is seriously short on the details the world would like to see. More impressively perhaps, it manages to avoid using any of the acronyms that seem to be the mark of most military writing.

The first section acknowledges the world is more peaceful and stable these days, recognizes the inevitability of globalization and an increasingly informationalized society, and states that the outlook for mankind is generally bright. 

Soon enough things take a darker turn: "In a number of countries, outbreaks of unrest are frequently triggered by political, economic, ethnic, or religious disputes. In general, world peace remains elusive." The issues that have plagued man since time immemorial are apparently very much with us.

Then, later, a hint of paranoia (and a dig at the USA): "International military competition remains fierce. Major powers are stepping up the realignment of their security and military strategies, accelerating military reform, and vigorously developing new and more sophisticated military technologies. Some powers have worked out strategies for outer space, cyber space and the polar regions, developed means for prompt global strikes, accelerated development of missile defense systems, enhanced cyber operations capabilities to occupy new strategic commanding heights."

So much for world peace.  Later on, predictably, the paper emphasises China's seriousness about Taiwan, and again registers China's displeasure about American weapons sales to Taiwan.

As for the PLAAF there is precious little.  A long, 267-word paragraph on the PLAAF essentially says it is being transformed into a more modern, capable force that can perform a range of missions and can operate increasingly sophisticated equipment. 

As for the Chinese military's new weapons and technologies, the report reserves just one frugal line for the PLAAF: "The PLAAF has formed for its air control operations a weaponry system with new types of combat aircraft and ground-to-air missile systems as the spine."

The white paper concludes with this:

"China attaches great importance to military transparency, and makes efforts to promote mutual trust with other countries in the military sphere. Since 2007, China has begun to report to the UN Standardized Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures."

It was comforting, at the end, to read that transparency is a priority. With luck the next white paper will offer more details about China's various aircraft projects, its aircraft carrier programme, its DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, cyber warfare capabilities, and how these systems tie into its sweeping territorial claims in the South and East China Seas.

Less information is definitely not more when it comes to the development of China's military.