Asia Looks Seaward

Established in 1985, the Navy Research Institute is reportedly the PLAN’s ‘‘single

most important center...for the development of national-level naval strategy,

the development of navy operational-level (campaign-level) warfighting con-

cepts, naval tactics, and research and studies that look to the future of naval war-

fare and the development of foreign naval issues.’’^134

Training

Chinese naval planners realize that rapidly improving equipment is useless

without corresponding improvement in human performance.^135 This imperative

appears to have been solidified in recent official directives, including a June 2006

General Staff Headquarters Plan,^136 and by a December 2006 PLA Comprehen-

sive Military Training Conference that was reportedly attended by more than

150 military training experts.^137 Citing President Hu Jintao’s mandate that

military training be ‘‘raised to a new level through making innovations,’’ a recent

People’s Navyarticle elaborates, ‘‘We should more intensively and extensively

carry out battle training...in an authentic environment and in a complicated

battlefield situation as a basic form of conducting campaign and tactical exercises

so as to enhance the naval units’ adaptability in sea battles under the condition

of informatization.’’^138 A companion article stresses, ‘‘To ensure winning in

wartime, the units should undergo difficult and rigorous training in peacetime

according to the requirements of real war, and be tempered under various

complicated and difficult conditions.’’^139 A survey of relevant articles inPeople’s

Navysuggests that exercises were scripted and rudimentary as recently as ten

years ago. Over the past five years, however, they have become far more diverse

and realistic.

Current PLAN-wide objectives include ‘‘training under real-war situations...

employing mobile operations and support...operating in unfamiliar areas and

under unknown conditions...training in poor weather conditions...conducting

multiple training subjects simultaneously...employing increasingly larger forma-

tions...using data links and radio silence [and] operating in an electromagnetic

jamming and countermeasures environment.’’^140 For instance, marine-corps

training increasingly involves the use of simulators, and otherwise takes place

in increasingly difficult conditions.^141 Shore-based logistics to support naval

operations appears to have been substantially improved through computerized

inventory management, maintenance and logistics interchangeability, and even

outsourcing to the private sector through Internet ordering.^142 To better support

an increasing number of operations in unknown areas, China is engaged in inten-

sive surveying and mapping. The National Institute for South China Sea Studies,

for instance, has produced China’s first-generation ‘‘Digital South China Sea’’

chart. Extensively tested, it brings the PLAN’s charts up to international standards

and will support the voyages of Chinese vessels.^143

94 Asia Looks Seaward