New Force for China's PLA Considers Information Support on Modern Warfare

Two of the FSS units, the Military Aerospace Force and the Cyberspace Force, will remain independent forces, reporting directly to the Central Military Commission under a new command structure.

The aerospace force will be responsible for strengthening the ability to safely enter, exit and openly use space, improve crisis management and the effectiveness of comprehensive governance in space, according to Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense.

The cyber force will be responsible for strengthening national cyber defense, detecting and countering network intrusions and maintaining national cyber sovereignty and information security, he added.

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The new Information Support Force will be led by Bi Yi, the former deputy commander of the SSF.

The new force will play a crucial role and is a key pillar in coordinating the construction and application of the network information system, Xi said at Friday's ceremony.

He ordered the force to effectively support combat operations, integrate information resources, strengthen information protection, deeply integrate into the joint military operations system, and provide support information in a precise and efficient manner.

He added that the new force should strengthen scientific innovation and build a networked information system that meets the requirements of modern warfare and improves joint operation capabilities.

Last month, Xi ordered the PLA to be well prepared for information-driven warfare.

The new force will focus on obtaining information and distributing [it] between platforms and forces, and ensuring that the other side cannot obtain our information, said Fu Qianshao, a former PLA equipment expert.

In the past, different forces had independent data chains and it was rather difficult to integrate them.

He added that the restructuring would better equip the information division to improve joint operations.

The PLA has set a target of 2027, its centenary year, to achieve its modernization goals, paving the way for it to become a world-class military power by 2049.

Ni Lexiong, a professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said the new information support force would strengthen the PLA's situational awareness, while weakening that of its enemies.

The restructuring is essential because of the decisive role information plays in modern warfare, but these functions overlap between different units of the security forces, he added.

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When a certain military technology is very important to the outcome of a war, the troops in charge of that military technology will be separated from the original military branch and become a new branch of the military, Ni said.

Today, information, intelligence and electronic warfare have become decisive, so the information support force has become a separate force, Ni explained.

The new force will work closely with space and cyber forces, he also added.

This new strength is likely the result of China strengthening the division of labor between the PLA's branches, said James Char, a researcher at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

He said the SEF's previous functions and the forces' new specialized role, fueled by the growing use of AI, mean the PLA will be able to conduct information operations more effectively, Char said.

The overhaul better reflects the importance the PLA has placed on accelerating the development of intelligent warfare by delegating the task of developing new types of combat forces to a single, autonomous entity, and giving it a place of choice in the military hierarchy by reconstituting it into a new branch, Char said.