China’s special forces need to extend overseas reach to safeguard interests, military mouthpiece says
Commando units should regularly be deployed to protect nation’s energy assets overseas and help in counterterrorism operations, PLA Daily says
China’s special forces should take a greater role in protecting national overseas interests, including energy sources and their supply lines, and play a bigger role in counterterrorism operations, the military’s mouthpiece said yesterday.
The special forces were gradually becoming the main military instrument to deal with security, a PLA Daily commentary said.
“The regions where we have a key stake are both geopolitically important and energy rich, and also are intersections of terrorism and foreign interference, full of uncertainties, risk and increasingly prominent security problems,” it said.
With strength in “detection, combat and assessment”, the units could play a key role in safeguarding the country’s overseas interests, the commentary said.
China established the special forces within the People’s Liberation Army and paramilitary in the 1980s as it sought to adjust to modern hi-tech warfare. The officers are selectively picked, trained and equipped.
