China’s military overhaul likely to raise neighbours’ concerns over improved offensive capabilities

The recent overhaul of China’s armed forces will have increased concerns among its neighbours about the transformation of the People’s Liberation Army from a purely defensive force into one that can project its power further afield, analysts have said.

On Sunday, state news agency Xinhua reported that the land army “now accounts for less than 50 per cent of the total number of troops” and officer numbers had been cut by 30 per cent, as part of a restructuring that boosted other branches of the service such as the navy, air force, rocket force and the strategic support force, which is responsible for areas such as cyberwarfare.

Security analysts said the ending the army’s traditional dominance would confirm international worries about a strategic shift away from a force designed to counter conventional invasions towards one that could defend Chinese interests far from the country’s borders.

“The shift is likely to generate greater international concern because it foreshadows a more aggressive Chinese military approach of the kind already witnessed in the South China Sea, where China has fundamentally changed the status quo in its favour,” Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, said.

China has been expanding its military presence in the disputed waters, conducting training exercises and building military infrastructure on artificial islands despite the competing claims of at least six other Southeast Asian nations.

Adam Ni, a researcher on Chinese foreign and security policy at the Australian National University, added that neighbours like India, Japan and Taiwan, would find that the PLA is in a much stronger position to project power overseas, which would raise concerns about its ability to coerce them in future.