Taking The Fight To The Enemy: Chinese Thinking About Long-Distance And Expeditionary Operations

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was once focused on China’s immediate periphery. The PLA Navy had no “blue water” naval capabilities and very limited combat logistics support. The Air Force could not fly long-distance missions overwater or operate effectively in conjunction with the Navy or naval air forces; nor could it coordinate joint, precision strikes with the missiles of the Second Artillery. Land forces, meanwhile, could move effectively within China by rail, and could operate on China’s periphery, but were neither capable of nor equipped for long-distance force projection. Dr. Larry M. Wortzel’s Letort Paper analyzes a body of literature that provides internal critiques of PLA capabilities. He starts with an analysis of the book Long-Distance Operations, by a strategist from the Academy of Military Science of the Chinese PLA, published in 2007.