China’s Military Modernization, Policy, and Strategy

Since the fall of 1976, China's military leadership has initiated the first sustained reappraisal of its military force structure and defense strategies and policies in close to twenty years. This essay will briefly assess these recent policy changes and their potential consequences. There are four objectives: to identify the political, military, strategic, and economic context of these changes; to explore the areas of particular concern to the military leadership; to evaluate how far-reaching the possibilities for policy change might actually be; and to consider the potential implications of these changes for China's overall political and military role in East Asia during the 1980s.