Xi shakes up China's military by rethinking how to fight and win future wars

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China has carried out the biggest restructuring of its military in nearly a decade, focusing on technology-driven strategic forces equipped for modern warfare, as Beijing vies with Washington for military primacy in a region plagued by geopolitical tensions.

In a surprise move last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping scrapped the Strategic Support Force (SSF), a military branch he created in 2015 to integrate the country's space, cyber, electronic and psychological warfare capabilities. People's Liberation Army, as part of a radical overhaul of the system. armed forces.

In his place, Xi inaugurated the Information Support Force, which he said is an entirely new strategic branch of the PLA and a key pillar of the coordinated development and application of the networked information system .

The new force would play an important role in helping the Chinese military fight and win in modern warfare, he said. said during a ceremony last Friday.

HAS press conference On the same day, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson appeared to suggest that the FSS was effectively divided into three units: the Information Support Force, the Aerospace Force and the Cyberspace Force, which would report directly to the Central Military Commission, the apex body of China's Ministry of Defense. the military chain of command led by Xi.

Under the new structure, the PLA now includes four services: the army, navy, air force and rocket force, as well as four branches: the three units from the security forces and of the joint logistics support force, according to ministry spokesperson Wu Qian.

Chinese military experts say the reorganization strengthens Xi's direct control over the PLA's strategic capabilities and underscores China's ambitions to better master AI and other new technologies to prepare for what she calls it the intelligent warfare of the future.

The restructuring follows Xi's sweeping corruption purge of the PLA last year, which ensnared powerful generals and undermined the Rocket Force, an elite branch overseeing the country's rapidly expanding arsenal. China's nuclear and ballistic missiles.

The Information Support Force will be led by senior generals from the now-defunct SSF.

SEF deputy commander Bi Yi has been named commander of the new unit, while Li Wei, the SSF political commissar, will take on the same role in the Information Support Force, according to the information support agency. official Xinhua press.

There is no mention of a new appointment for SSF commander Ju Qiansheng, who sparked speculation last year when he disappeared from public view amid a wave of military purges before finally resurfaced at a conference at the end of January.

Longtime PLA observers say the latest reorganization is not a result of recent corruption purges, but rather a reflection of the fact that the FSS was not an ideal organizational format for the Chinese military.

This shows that the SSF was not a satisfactory arrangement. That reduced Xi's visibility on important functions and did little to improve coordination among space, cyber and network defense forces, said Joel Wuthnow, a senior fellow at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University .

Prior to its disbandment, the SSF had two main units: the Aerospace Systems Department overseeing the PLA's space operations and reconnaissance, and the Network Systems Department responsible for cyber, electronic, and psychological warfare capabilities.

I think the new structure will give Xi better visibility into what's happening in space, cyberspace and network management. Those functions will now be overseen at its level and not through the Strategic Support Force, which served as an intermediary, Wuthnow said.

Lack of such visibility could carry high risks, particularly at times of heightened tensions and deep mistrust between Beijing and Washington.

Last year, the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon after it crossed the continental United States. The incident caused a new crisis between the two powers and plunged bilateral relations into a deep freeze for months.

Although U.S. intelligence officials said the balloon was part of a larger surveillance program run by the Chinese military, Xi may not have been aware of the mission.

US President Joe Biden said last June that the Chinese leader I didn't know about the ball and was greatly embarrassed when he was shot down after veering off course into American airspace.

James Char, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said conducting strategic reconnaissance during the spy balloon incident would have been the responsibility of the SSF's aerospace systems department.

This was one of the roles and responsibilities of the PLASSF, he said.

It is unclear whether the balloon incident contributed to Xi's decision to disband the SEF.

Wuthnow, of the National Defense University, said the newly created Information Support Force will likely take over communications and defense of the PLA's networks.

Getting these things right is of paramount importance to the PLA in any future conflict, and it has paid close attention to these functions and likely learned lessons for its own organization from the war in Ukraine, he said , referring to Russia's current invasion of its territory. neighbor.

It is therefore logical that the [Central Military Commission] the president would like to play a more direct role in this area.

Char said this latest shake-up is likely the result of an ongoing review of how the military can better meet the strategic goals of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

I suppose the reorganization better reflects the importance the PLA has placed on accelerating the development of intelligent warfare brought by a new round of technological and industrial progress, he said.

The concept of intelligent warfare gained attention in a 2019 Chinese report. white paper on defense which highlighted the military application of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, quantum information, big data and cloud computing.

The landscape of international military competition is undergoing historic changes. New and high-tech military technologies, centered on information technology, are advancing with each passing day, and there is a dominant trend towards the development of long-range, intelligent, stealthy or non-precision weapons and equipment. pilot, says the white paper.

War is accelerating its evolution towards informational warfare, and intelligent warfare is on the horizon.

The creation of the Information Support Force, a new branch reporting directly to the Central Military Commission, also highlights the importance of information dominance in modern warfare.

A comment in the PLA Daily, the official spokesperson of the Chinese military, described networked information technology as the biggest variable in improving combat capability.

Modern wars are competitions between systems and structures, where control of information equates to control of the initiative of war, he says.

The emphasis on information dominance and smart warfare also has significant implications for any potential future conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

The Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan part of its territory, even though it has never controlled it, and has vowed to take control of the island by force if necessary.

Char said that in the event of a conflict in Taiwan, the Information Support Force would likely take over and serve as a spearhead to support the PLA's attempts to dominate the information space before the Beijing's opponents cannot do so.