Military Power of the People's Republic of China 2009

U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense | 2009-03-25

By law, the U.S. Secretary of Defense must submit an annual report to Congress on the current and future military strategy of the People's Republic of China, in classified and unclassified form.

This is the 2009 edition of the unclassified report, released March 25, 2009.

An excerpt from the executive summary: "The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning short-duration, high-intensity conflicts along its periphery against high-tech adversaries -- an approach that China refers to as preparing for 'local wars under conditions of informatization.'"

For a full analysis of the report, see Richard Weitz's March 31, 2009, WPR column.