China has established a new information warfare department under the direct command of its top military body as it begins its largest restructuring of the armed forces in more than eight years.
The shift of information warfare to the direct command of the Central Military Commission — the top Communist party and state organ that controls the People’s Liberation Army — would hand Chinese leader Xi Jinping even more direct control over the military, analysts said.
The Information Support Force will aim to “speed up military modernisation and effectively implement the mission of the people’s armed forces in the new era”, Xi said at a ceremony in Beijing on Friday.
Xi’s last major PLA restructuring in 2015 moved key functions such as logistics, training and mobilisation directly under the command of the CMC, which he chairs.
Combining cyber, information and space forces under the SSF was viewed as an attempt to create similar direct control.
But experts on the Chinese military said that leaders had unwound that structure as a result of an incident last year in which a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down by the US, as well as corruption investigations into generals and a failure to achieve synergies across the different divisions within the SSF.
The military leadership has been experimenting with smaller reorganisations in recent years, suggesting that the 2015 reforms were not complete.
@C4mpaignStanLibertarian2wks2W
The US defense budget is $800B vs China's $224B, yet we're the ones behind?Maybe accountability for the money we are already spending is in order (cf. $7.2 Billion in weapons we gave to the Taliban with our absurdly planned withdrawal)
@SereneAmnestyRepublican2wks2W
(1) China is likely not reporting all of its military spending.
(2) Given lower costs in China, the purchasing power of the Chinese defense budget is much higher than the purchasing power of the US defense budget.
(3) China spends more of its defense budget on new equipment than the US does.
Accounting for these factors, it is possible that China spends more money on new equipment every year than the US does. They seem to be fielding new missiles, planes, ships, etc. than the US does.
@SheepPaisleyGreen2wks2W
The US cannot be the world's policeman - we literally cannot scale to meet challenges from China, Russia, Iran, N. Korea, Syria, and others simultaneously. We need to get our so-called allies to realize the free rides are over and they need to step up to their regional challenges. Europe, especially Germany, France, and UK, needs to take the lead on Russia. South Korea needs to deal with N. Korea. Israel and Saudi need to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat. And India, Japan, Australia and SEA countries need to help contain China. The US can be the coordinator and force multiplier for all t...
@BlueStateHarryPatriot2wks2W
The US can still take the lead in these situations. But our allies must bear much more of the responsibility. There is no reason why S Korea should not be able to handle much more of it's own defense. Our NATO allies must dramatically increase their defense budgets. Russia's recent attacks in Ukraine have made them realize they need to do much more.
@GleefulV0terVeteran2wks2W
No warmongering around Asia or Europe or anywhere else. The US must focus on defending the territory of our 50 states.
The isolationist movement prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941 was strong. Led by the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and others, there were riots, violence and even murders associated with the factions, pro global involvement and isolationism. If not for the emotion and desire for revenge from Japans attack on Pearl AND Hitlers subsequent declaration of war on the US, we may not have entered into any military conflict. Although FDR supported aiding Great Britain, it would not have been easy to convince most Americans to sacrifice its young men again on “their” war… Read more
@KindJudiciaryRepublican2wks2W
For the last 20+ years, the US military's idea of warfare was using a $150 million dollar plane to drop a $400,000 bomb on a $25 tent.
Hey, at least this shift brings them back to concentrate on destroying enemy assets of mostly equal value.
@HolisticTurtlePatriot2wks2W
Meanwhile "The U.S. military is struggling to meet recruitment goals, with Americans turned off by the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,...."I had high hope that this piece would at last approach our military deficits honestly. My hopes were dashed with the above quoted sentence.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
The historical activity of users engaging with this general discussion.
Loading data...
Loading chart...
Loading the political themes of users that engaged with this discussion
Loading data...
