PLA UPDATE

Welcome to the October 2023 edition of PLA UPDATE, CNA’s newsletter on the internal and external affairs of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). We begin this issue by reviewing an article in the PLA’s official newspaper, PLA Daily, that discusses core competencies for the PLA’s joint force commanders. We then turn to two PLA Navy (PLAN) activities with foreign militaries: a bilateral exercise with the Saudi Arabian Navy and a multilateral training mission that took PLAN and five other countries’ midshipmen to three countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Next, we look at new regulations on the benefits the PLA provides to its civilian hires. We conclude with summaries of two recent PLA conferences addressing how cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), may be developed for military and defense applications.

DOCTRINAL ISSUES

NDU Official Discusses Core Skills for Joint Force Commanders

The political commissar at the PLA National Defense University's Joint Operations College identified four areas for improvement in joint education and training. On September 26, the PLA Daily published an opinion piece by Major General Zhang Changsheng titled "Forge Command Talent Capable of Prevailing in Future Joint Operations." In the article, Zhang argued that the PLA should have a greater sense of urgency as it cultivates officers capable of joint command. He identified the following four categories of core competencies that the PLA should develop and strengthen in joint command officers' education and training:

• Strategic thinking. Zhang called on officers in joint command billets to improve their understanding of strategic concepts associated with all-domain competition in future warfare, to include better familiarity with the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) guidance to "consolidate and enhance the integration of national strategic systems and capabilities." (For more on this concept, see PLA UPDATE Issue 9.)
• Knowledge and skills for joint command. Zhang encouraged officers to research potential adversaries' "thinking, systems, and command" to better recognize their strengths and weaknesses. He recommended deepened studies of joint operational systems, command relations, and authorities, as well as training focused on mastering the contents and processes of joint command.
• Technological proficiency. Zhang wrote that the technology-dependent nature of future warfare demands that joint commanders be able to understand, innovate, and employ both new and legacy equipment and forces. He called for improving related competencies by conducting more difficult, intense, and effective training supported by information and intelligent technologies.
• Responsiveness. Asserting that opportunities on future battlefields will come and go in an instant, Zhang recommended that more be done in training to make commanders respond in quick and innovative ways. He recommended strengthening "free-style confrontation" (自由式对抗), or unscripted drills that push officers to their limits and force them to adopt creative approaches.

PLA NAVY

PLAN & Saudi Arabian Navy Conduct Counterterrorism Training

Naval special operations personnel from the two countries convened for their second iteration of bilateral training. On October 9, the navies of the PRC and Saudi Arabia kicked off the three-week bilateral training activity Blue Sword 2023 in Zhanjiang, a port city in south China's Guangdong Province. More than 100 training participants were present at the opening ceremony. This was the second iteration of the two navies' special operations training; the first took place in 2019 at the King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

According to a China Military Online report, Blue Sword 2023 would focus on overseas maritime counterterrorism operations and cover topics including shooting multiple types of guns, fast roping from a helicopter, and underwater explosive ordnance search and disposal. The training would conclude with an exercise featuring a scenario in which the special operations troops of the two navies would execute a combined rescue operation aboard hijacked merchant ships.

PLAN Midshipmen Complete Training Mission in SE Asia, Oceania

Midshipmen from three PLAN academic institutions trained alongside counterparts from five countries during a three-country training tour. On October 7, the PLAN training ship CNS Qi Jiguang (AXT-83) completed a training mission that took more than 300 PLAN midshipmen and 10 midshipmen from five other countries to three countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The ship, which departed the east China port city of Qingdao on September 4, made stops in Surabaya, Indonesia; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG); and Suva, Fiji. The PLAN midshipmen aboard Qi Jiguang came from the PLA Naval University of Engineering, Naval Submarine Academy, and Naval Aviation University, and the foreign midshipmen were from Indonesia, PNG, Fiji, Thailand, and Pakistan. During the port visits, Qi Jiguang conducted combined drills with the Indonesian, PNG, and Fijian navies that covered topics such as formation maneuvers and communications.

(For a summary of the ship's four-nation tour earlier in 2023, see PLA Update Issue 12.)

LAWS AND REGULATIONS

PLA Issues Provisional Regulations on Civilian Hires' Benefits

The PLA continues to refine policies aimed at improving recruitment and retention of civilians serving in China's armed forces. On October 15, new provisional regulations went into effect governing the benefits provided to civilian personnel hired by the PLA. Although the text of the provisional regulations was not made public, a PLA Daily report stated that they addressed areas including civilian hires' salaries, housing, and healthcare. The report described the regulations as an important development in the PLA's efforts to improve benefits and support as it continues to reshape the system of civilian service in China's armed forces.

The issuance of the provisional regulations follows a series of policy changes made to the management of the PLA's civilian employees since 2005 that appear aimed at rectifying retention issues and improving the attractiveness of a career as a PLA civilian. For more information on the most recent iteration of the "Chinese People's Liberation Army Civilian Personnel Regulations," see PLA UPDATE Issue 7.

MAJOR CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

PRC Technology Experts Attend PLA Aerospace Medicine Forum

The two-day forum focused on cutting-edge technologies that could improve medical treatment and rescue services for PLA servicemembers. The 2023 Aerospace Medicine Forum was held in Beijing from September 26 to 27. Organized by the PLA Air Force Medical Center, the forum brought together military and civilian experts from across China to discuss the integration of theories and technologies concerning digitization, AI, and cognition into aerospace medicine. Forum attendees discussed topics such as the design of future airborne equipment, applications of AI in medical treatment, and battlefield rescue. For example, Senior Captain Wang Shifeng, director of the PLAN Medical Center's Research Department, gave a presentation at the forum titled "Development Status and Prospects for Airborne Submarine Rescue." Speaking on the sidelines of the forum, Pan Chong, president of Beihang University's School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, said the university was exploring ways to use human-computer interaction, virtual reality, and intelligent assistance to simplify mission payloads and improve aviators' abilities to apply technologies in tactical actions.

NUDT Hosts Forum on Technologies for Future Warfare

The PLA's top institution for scientific research hosted thousands of domestic experts to discuss research and applications of AI in future "intelligentized warfare." From September 25 to 28, the inaugural National Defense Technology Highland Forum (国防科技高地论坛) was held in Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan province. The forum was hosted by the PLA National University of Defense Technology (NUDT)-the PLA's premier institution for scientific research and education-in collaboration with the Hunan provincial CCP and government authorities, the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, and China Electronics Corporation. More than 5,000 domestic military and civilian experts attended the event.

The forum was divided into one "main forum" and 17 "sub-forums." The names of the reports delivered at the main forum are as follows:

• Looking at Intelligence from a Computational Perspective
• AI Supports Leap-Forward Development in Space Transportation
• Thoughts on the Application of Future Network Technologies in National Defense Affairs in the Intelligent Era
• The Development and Application of Mathematics in the Intelligent Era
• Opportunities and Challenges of Institutions of Higher Education Promoting "Three-in-One" Education-Technology-Talent Development

The names of the event's 17 sub-forums are as follows:

• "Technology+Military Affairs" in Future Warfare
• Top University Presidents
• Intelligent Optics
• Intelligent Numerical Prediction
• AI for Science
• Intelligent Sensing and Confrontation
• Intelligent Uncrewed Vanguards
• Intelligent Aerospace Technologies
• Intelligent Changes in Information and Communications
• Military-specific Translation Capacity Building in the Age of Intelligence
• Electromagnetic Defense in Intelligent Communications
• Applied Mathematics in National Defense Affairs
• Building and Making Use of the Digital Intelligence Space
• Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in National Defense
• Self-Reliance in the Information Industry
• Intelligence Competition
• Collaborative Innovation in National Defense Science and Technology.

Source materials can be found in the PDF