The PRC has long adhered to the “active defense” strategy. Facing the rapid-changing international situations, responding to potential Sino-America military conflicts, and meeting the requirements of modern warfare, the strategic connotation of Active Defense Strategy is evolving. Content analysis is employed in this study to delineate linkages between the evolving strategic connotations of CCP’s “active defense” strategy & PLA’s military capability, and the impacts toward U.S. military deployments in the Asia-Pacific regions and toward Taiwan’s security.
This study affirms that PRC’s “active defense” strategy is developed from CCP’s Guerrilla Warfare during the civil war against Kuomintang. The core of “active defense” strategy emphasizes strategic defensiveness at the level of the war yet advocates tactical offensiveness at the level of the battle. The evolution of PRC’s “active defense” strategy has been influenced by leaders’ judgements on international situation, China’s national interests, and the trends of future warfare. And this evolution has also become the basis for the PLA’s armament build-ups & war preparation. Seizing the period of strategic opportunity, boosting its economic development, increasing investments for its national defense, and conducting active military modernization, PRC’s “active defense” strategy is gradually shifting from “defensive defense” to “offensive defense” to respond to U.S. interventions in the Asia-Pacific region and to protect PRC’s national security & interests.
Based on the strategic connotation of “active defense” strategy, it will inevitably lead to the enhancements of military strategies and combat capabilities of the various services of the PLA. In addition to the nuclear deterrence capabilities, the PLA Rocket Force has also increased its tactical ballistic missile capabilities and created a favorable scenario for military operations of PLA’s naval and air force. The PLA Navy has demonstrated its intention of “far sea protection” and of gradual deployments into the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The PLA Air Force has transformed itself into a service of “integration of air & space, preparation for offensiveness and defensiveness” to achieve the goal of “global response & all-terrain reaching”.