China's Active Defense Strategy and Its Regional Impact

2011-02-02 (China Military Analysis cited from heritage.org and written by Dean Cheng)

In considering the Chinese approach to what the West has termed anti-access/area denial strategies, it is important to recognize that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been a careful observer of Western, and especially American, approaches to what they first termed Local Wars Under Modern, High-Tech Conditions, and is now termed Local Wars Under Informationalized Conditions. These include the Falklands conflict, Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, NATO's campaigns in the Balkans, the toppling of the Taliban, and the March 2003 march to Baghdad. Consequently, PLA defense planning is being shaped, in no small part, by the lessons that they have derived from observing how potential opponents, but especially the United States, have been waging their wars.