PLAN Command and Control Capabilities...has it improved?

This is much like how Hollywood where the entertainment media likes to build up stars just so they can tear them down. They need to do that to keep people reading their news so they can continue to exist.

Since when has China proclaimed to be superior to the US militarily? That's a Western mindset they apply to the Chinese. They say Chinese are secretive meaning they don't let out information. What do people do who don't know how another thinks get an idea? They look at themselves at how they think. Hence why China's is built up as aiming to be number one in the world wanting to displace the US because they always want to be number one. So it is in part a self-comforting piece because discovering the competition is less than the "Chinese" claim is continued needed comforting reinforcement of one's own beliefs.

There's two school of thoughts at work. The one's that need to be comforted in their superiority where they need to make the competition inferior. Then there's the threat faction that needs to scare people into action against a competitor which includes getting more money for the military as the sole goal. Neither one is honest.

balance said:

Is this real professional assessment or self-comforting piece of article?

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Frome the article:

The report sifted through over 300 Chinese-language articles from CCP publications, along with numerous books and studies, including important books on strategic missile forces issues, such as "The Science of Second Artillery Campaigns" by Yu Jixun.

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It seems that the main source for this report comes mostly from domestic Chinese sources. (And no doubt they have put their own spin on it.) In other words this is what the PLA sees as her own weaknesses.

On the hardware side:

The issues about the lack of transport and logistical capabilities and special mission planes will be resolved in the future with the varius programs that are now underway in China like the Y-20, Y-9 and the varius helicopter projects and we now see a raft of special mission planes based on the Y-8 and Y-9 are coming out. And in the future even special mission planes based on the Y- 20 and the C-919. And with the J-10B, J-16 and the Type 055 entering production the fighter fleet of the PLAAF will be modernized one plane at the time and the PLAN will be modernized one ship at the time. But I'm surprised that China is spending so little money modernizing their tank forces.

On the software side:

On the human side the problems there are harder to judge and and I suppose will be more difficult to resolve. Things like outdated command structures, lack of new thinking and corruption at the top and lower down the ranks the lack of real combat experience are the most serious problems. But things like lack of professionalism and low morale amongst the troops are in my view very subjective. And the claims that the modern youth of China is so spoiled that they can't be effective soldiers certainly raises eyebrows with me. The majority of the members of the PLA are volunteers and I suppose they know what they are getting into when they signed on to be in the military just like in America and all other volunteer forces.

Bltizo said:

I have no idea where they came up with morale and discipline problems (if anything the PLA is stereotyped as being very strict on discipline), and even more ridiculous is their attempted link with the one child policy?
I'd like to see their sources regarding how well trained they believe the PLA are, and a lot of their claims regarding the PLA at large are based on a couple of articles which are not statistically representative (such as that thing about "little emperors" -- if anything the one child policy has caused children to be doted upon but also put more pressure on them to succeed as well).

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Bltizo,
You are someone I respect because you put reason to opinion rather than just having a blinded world view. Soft issues by nature are driven more by subjective angles than some form of hard based facts because they are impossible to determine like morale unless you conduct broad based surveys within the PLA. I think the point about corruption and its flow on effect across the rank is hard to judge outside the system but we do know that President Xi has made a number of speeches regarding his views on this. The actions he has taken also does say about the seriousness of the problem. The fact that you can buy your way up the chain does not bode well on morale. You clearly don't want to put your life in the hands on someone who has bought his way rather competence based besides the notion of fair play and rewards. How deep is the problem and consequently its impact is really the issue and not whether in fact it is an issue.

With regards to one child policy and the consequent coinage of little emperor syndrome is actually quite unique to China because of the policy. Chinese tradition do not encourage joining the army. I still remember a Chinese saying that a filial son do not enlist in the army and is probably compounded because of one child. This might have changed with times but I just would not brush aside as indignance becasue I think it is real. How significant is what is debatable.

I also have an issue with the claim of low morale and poor discipline. Most of the Chinese youth nowadays grew up in an extremely competitive environment. Most of the them spent their days shuttling between school, various tutor sessions and extracurricular activities all day and everyday. Most of them can hardly find time to eat and sleep. Can you imagine getting up at 5am to work out, going to school at 7:30am, getting off school at 4pm and going to piano lesson, math tutoring session, English tutoring session, Chinese tutoring session, then going home to do homework? Then on weekends, you will have t go to all the various Olympic math/science competition tutoring sessions. And this is a schedule of an 8 year-old. I cant even imagine how long I would last in such competitive and high-pressure environment. Yet these kids have been doing that since they could walk. Yes, they might be spoiled from a material standpoint, meaning that their parents would not hesitate to buy them anything they want. Yet, it is also because such spoilage, the parents all have extremely high hope for their kids, thus putting huge amount of pressure on the kids to succeed. So these kids have been so used to survive and thrive in high-pressure environments, like in the military. If anyone can survive the military, it would be the Chinese youth. They have to doing it since they can barely walk.

Haha, after all that do you think the parents are going to allow them to join the military?!

PeoplesPoster said:

Haha, after all that do you think the parents are going to allow them to join the military?!

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Well, they do. And if those pics online suggest anything (those posted by Popeyes), more and more highly educated youth want to join the military.

alright, this is turning really into a social commentary now. Unless there is new military stuff that you have to offer to this thread, please move on.

AssassinsMace said:

They say Chinese are secretive meaning they don't let out information.

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This is more of a response to this statement than at the poster, but the reason why most Western commentators say China is secretive about its military is because they can't read the Chinese language.
If you read or watch lectures (via youtube) by the academics at the US Naval War College, you would know that they say almost every time that there is a wealth of information about the PLA (official and unofficial) in articles, magazine publications and online. Of course, those academics that say this are all Chinese linguists.

PLA transparency is only becomes an issue if you demand everything served on a silver plate for you in English.

Brumby said:

Bltizo,
You are someone I respect because you put reason to opinion rather than just having a blinded world view. Soft issues by nature are driven more by subjective angles than some form of hard based facts because they are impossible to determine like morale unless you conduct broad based surveys within the PLA. I think the point about corruption and its flow on effect across the rank is hard to judge outside the system but we do know that President Xi has made a number of speeches regarding his views on this. The actions he has taken also does say about the seriousness of the problem. The fact that you can buy your way up the chain does not bode well on morale. You clearly don't want to put your life in the hands on someone who has bought his way rather competence based besides the notion of fair play and rewards. How deep is the problem and consequently its impact is really the issue and not whether in fact it is an issue.

With regards to one child policy and the consequent coinage of little emperor syndrome is actually quite unique to China because of the policy. Chinese tradition do not encourage joining the army. I still remember a Chinese saying that a filial son do not enlist in the army and is probably compounded because of one child. This might have changed with times but I just would not brush aside as indignance becasue I think it is real. How significant is what is debatable.

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I agree that corruption is definitely an issue and needs to be solved (as are a variety of others that the article didn't mention). The fact that the report emphasizes is is probably just because of the high profile reports on this compared to previous years.

As to the second paragraph, from what I garner as a first generation overseas Chinese with parents who lived in China for most of their lives with relatives in China, I do not think joining the military is considered in a negative light.
Regarding little emperor syndrome, I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I'm saying it is probably generalized in terms of prevalence because of how unique its characteristics are among different cultures, but at the same time like Solarz said, Chinese youth also have a heap of pressure put on them. Little emperor syndrome makes it sound like it would be easy living life as an average Chinese kid and will lead to inherent softness, but that's only half true. While parents do look out for you and invest in you more, there is also far more pressure as well.

Maybe these last few posts should be moved to the general PLA defence news thread.

Growing up is in life is pressure in itself. I don't think there is ever a lack of courage and bravery among the Chinese people at any time in history, no matter what the think tankers and nay sayers wants to believe.