The Pla at Home and Abroad: Assessing the Operational Capabilities of China’s Military

• Signs are emerging that the PLA is becoming more confident about its position vis-à-vis Taiwan. At the same time, China believes that a changing international environment requires the Chinese armed forces to have more diversified capabilities. It is therefore placing relatively more emphasis on developing operational capabilities for missions other than against Taiwan (e.g., humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping operations, disaster relief, antipiracy, etc.). • The implementation of Hu Jintao’s “New Historic Missions” also affords the PLA the opportunity to make gains in some of its traditionally weaker areas, including logistics improvement, defense industry reform, and the implementation of combined and eventually joint operations. • Through its 2009 Gulf of Aden antipiracy mission, the PLA Navy has shown that it is capable of undertaking certain types of operations abroad.