Analyze China's strengths and weaknesses in traditional warfare?

China's military strategy is a military strategy of active defense. Starting from China's national conditions and the objective realities of the enemy and us, the old generation of proletarian militarists represented by Mao Zedong created the strategic idea of active defense with distinctive Chinese characteristics on the basis of the practice of leading the people's army to victoriously conduct a domestic revolutionary war and a war of counter-invasion. In the years of the revolutionary war, the people's army was guided by this strategic thought and defeated powerful enemies at home and abroad. After the founding of New China, this idea was further developed and utilized in the military struggle to defend the sovereignty and security of the country, and became the fundamental strategic idea guiding the overall situation of the country's military struggle.

I. Active defense is a correct military strategy in line with China's national conditions

China's revolutionary war was in a position of strategic defense for a fairly long historical period under the conditions of enemy strength and weakness. The question of strategic defense became the most complex and important issue in the operations of the people's army. Military adventurism, which speaks only of attack and denies defense, and military conservatism or escapism, which speaks only of defense and denies attack, can only lead to the defeat of the war. Only the implementation of active defense is the only correct strategy for the weak people's army to overcome the powerful enemy and ultimately win the war. The essence of the strategy of active defense is the dialectical unity of offense and defense on the premise of strategic defense. It is mainly embodied in the following two aspects: first, the strategic defense and battle fighting on the offensive, strategic persistence and battle fighting on the quick decision, the strategic internal combat fighting the external quick decision offensive combat, gradually weakening the enemy, to achieve the purpose of strategic defense. Secondly, the strategic defense is organically combined with the strategic counter-offensive and the strategic offensive, and in due course the strategic defense is directed to the strategic counter-offensive or the strategic offensive, so as to carry out a strategic duel with the enemy's main force under favorable conditions, and completely annihilate the enemy. It is in this sense that active defense is also called offensive defense and duel defense.

In different historical periods and strategic stages, the active defense military strategy has different contents and forms of expression. In the period of the Land Revolutionary War, the Red Army initially carried out the combat principle of "the enemy advances and retreats, the enemy stationed and disturbs me, the enemy fatigues and fights, and the enemy retreats and pursues me". Later, in order to break the enemy's "encirclement", the Red Army adopted the strategic policy of "luring the enemy deeper into the country", and practiced flexible movement warfare with guerrilla. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the active defense strategy manifested itself in the general policy of prolonged war throughout the country and the policy of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army of carrying out "basically guerrilla warfare, but not relaxing movement warfare under favorable conditions"; during the War of Liberation, the core of the active defense strategy was to "focus on the annihilation of the Kuomintang's living forces instead of conserving the localities". During the Liberation War, the core of the active defense strategy was "to annihilate the Kuomintang's vital forces instead of conserving the localities". In the war against the United States and North Korea, the Volunteer Army in the strategic counter-offensive phase of the implementation of the policy "to the main movement war, and part of the battlefield, guerrilla warfare behind the enemy"; in the strategic defense phase of the implementation of the "protracted combat, active defense" policy.

After China entered the period of socialist revolution and construction, the military strategy of the PLA was still active defense, but the situation and content were very different. The PLA's strategic implementation of the principles of defense, self-defense and rear-guard action is no longer merely focused on the situation of a strong enemy and a weak state, but is mainly determined by the nature, tasks and foreign policy of the socialist state; what the military strategy seeks to solve is no longer the problem of seizing power, but rather the safeguarding of the country's sovereignty and security, and the defense of the cause of socialist modernization; and the judgment of military strategy is no longer confined to the internal class In 1956, the Central Military Commission (CMC) formulated the first strategic policy for the period of peacebuilding after the founding of New China, namely, the strategic policy of active defense for the defense of the motherland. in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly due to the sharp deterioration of China's security environment and the overestimation of the dangers of a war, China adopted the strategic policy of active defense and luring the enemy deeper into the country. As a result, China adopted the policy of active defense and luring the enemy to go deeper and deeper, based on coping with the most difficult situations and preparing for the enemy to fight an early, big and nuclear war. in the early 1980s, in response to the characteristics of the future all-out anti-invasive war, the Central Military Commission established the strategic policy of active defense, putting forward the strategic guiding principles of adhering to rearguard action, adhering to the people's war, adhering to protracted combat, basing itself on the ability to defeat the enemy with inferior equipment, and basing itself on the most complicated and difficult situations. The guiding principles of the strategy of combat. Although no world war or large-scale foreign invasion eventually occurred, the PLA had victoriously fought several border self-defense battles, accumulating a wealth of experience in carrying out the strategic idea of active defense in modern local wars. since the mid-1980s, based on Deng Xiaoping's strategic judgment that it was possible not to have a large-scale world war for a relatively long period of time, the guiding ideology for the construction of the armed forces was strategically changed from being always ready for a war to being ready for a war. Strategic change, that is, from always ready to fight early, big fight, fight a nuclear war on the verge of war to really shift to and leap period of modernization and construction of the track, stressing that the strategic guidance should be based on the readiness to deal with large-scale invasion of the enemy to focus on dealing with possible local wars and military conflicts, and put forward to adapt to the requirements of the situation at the time of the active defense of military strategy. In the 1990s, on the basis of a deep understanding of the major changes in the international strategic pattern and the profound changes in the military field, the Central Military Commission reformulated the new period of active defense of the military strategic policy, to determine the military struggle to prepare for the base on winning the modern technology, especially under the conditions of high technology in local wars, so as to achieve a new transformation of the military strategy.

In the new historical period, China's security situation, national interests, social system and internal and external policies, and the objective needs of the military struggle and army construction determine that China must continue to unswervingly implement the military strategy of active defense. This is not only an inheritance of a fine tradition, but is also in line with China's national and military conditions at this stage. Even if it develops in the future, active defense will remain the fundamental military strategy for solving China's national security problems. Adherence to the military strategy of active defense has a long-term and significant guiding significance for the preparation of military struggle in the new period. The implementation of this military strategy requires the following three aspects of the relationship:

First, the relationship between defense and offense. Active defense is not pure defense, but offensive defense, is the combination of offense and defense. The implementation of active defense, must be flexible. Strategic guidance, both to adhere to the strategic defense and rear-guard action, but also pay attention to the battle in the battle to take positive offensive action and the first mechanism of the enemy; both the preparation for protracted combat, but also to strive in the battle on the rapid response, quick decision, especially should be under the conditions of high-technology local wars, when the conditions for strategic quick decision, we must strive for a strategic quick decision. Unlike the revolutionary war era when the enemy was lured deep into the country and was first annihilated on the inner front and then on the outer front, the local wars in New China are more often fought for the victory of the war in the border areas based on the depth of the country. In contrast to the long period of preparation for large-scale invasion against the enemy in the past, which was based on a duel in strategic depth, the strategic guidance of modern local wars focuses on shallow deep operations near the sea and the border and emphasizes deterring the enemy with aggressive offensive actions. Active defense requires a strategic rearguard action, which is not a sign of weakness. "Post-emergency" means "if no one offends me, I will not offend", which is conducive to maintaining the initiative politically and diplomatically. To "restrain others" means "if someone offends me, I will take the blame", which demonstrates the determination and ability to fight back in self-defense. China will not take the initiative to stir up trouble, but it will not show weakness in the face of trouble either. Once the sovereignty and security of the country are violated, China will not hesitate to insist on a just war of self-defense to eliminate all incoming enemies.

Second, the relationship between containing the war and winning the war. To contain a war is to use deterrence to try to stop or delay the outbreak of war militarily and politically in peacetime. The new period of active defense military strategy, not only to solve the problem of how to prepare to fight and how to fight, but also to solve the problem of how to effectively contain the war, to avoid fighting and stop fighting; not only to avoid the outbreak of a total war, but also try to prevent the occurrence of local wars, to ensure that socialist modernization and construction is carried out smoothly. According to the needs of national strategy, various means of military deterrence can be utilized when necessary, in conjunction with political and diplomatic struggles, to achieve the purpose of containing war without fighting. Adhering to the fine tradition of people's war, combining increasingly modernized conventional forces, strong reserve forces and reliable and effective limited nuclear forces is the basic way to carry out the military strategy of active defence and to give play to the role of deterrence. At the same time, it must be recognized that the deterrence of war is based on the ability to win wars. Deterrence can be effectively implemented only if we have the power to win. The foothold of China's active defense military strategy has always been to prepare for and win wars. This is the cornerstone of China's deterrence ideology, which is to strive for good results from the worst possibilities, and to dare to fight and be able to fight in order to achieve the goal of subjugating the enemy without fighting.

Third, the relationship between military and politics. Military strategy must be closely coordinated with the politics, diplomacy and economy of the whole country. To carry out the military strategy of active defense, the most fundamental thing is still to consider and deal with military issues from the political point of view. Modern local wars are highly constrained by political and diplomatic factors and are highly political and policy-oriented. China's future defense operations are closely related to the country's reform and opening up and modernization. Military strategic guidance a moment to have a political mind, policy concepts and big-picture awareness, good at grasping some of the big strategic relationships. Military fight or not fight, fight what target, fight to what extent, when to fight, when to stop, should be politically and strategically comprehensive consideration. The military struggle should strictly abide by the position of self-defense, full preparation, prudent initial battle, justified, favorable, measured action, firmly grasp the initiative in the struggle. To be "justified" means to insist on strategic defense and pre-emptive action, to make the division famous, and to take the initiative politically and diplomatically; to be "advantageous" means to grasp favorable timing and conditions, to fight resolutely to win, and to gain a favorable military position; To be "moderate" means to master the fire of military struggle, to stop at the right moment, and to end the military action after an appropriate victory. The military struggle should actively cooperate with political, diplomatic and economic struggles, maintain world peace and regional stability, and strive to improve the national security environment.

Second, based on winning local wars under the conditions of modern technology, especially high technology

After the end of the Cold War, the world's trend toward multipolarity has continued to develop, and new world wars can be avoided, but different types of local wars and armed conflicts still exist, and hegemony and power politics are the main source of threats to world peace and stability. A profound transformation in the military field, spearheaded by the development of high-technology weapons, is emerging worldwide, and will have a significant and far-reaching impact on all aspects of war patterns, battlefield environments, means of warfare and methods of command. China's security environment has been greatly improved, but the maintenance of national sovereignty and security is also facing new challenges, and future local wars will likely face enemies with high-tech weaponry.

In this new situation, the Central Military Commission formulated the new period of military strategic guidelines clearly put forward, the new period of military struggle to prepare for the base, to cope with the general conditions of war to win the modern technology, especially high-tech conditions of local war up. All construction and all work of the army should be guided and unified by the military strategic policy of the new period, should obey and serve the needs of this strategic policy, and should be fully prepared in all aspects to ensure the successful realization of this policy. In-depth implementation of the new period of active defense of the military strategic policy, under the strategic guidance, to focus on solving the following problems:

First, from the focus on preparing for a comprehensive war to focus on preparing for local wars. A considerable period of time after the founding of new China, the center of gravity of military strategy is always ready to resist large-scale invasion of the enemy, based on a one-sided war. Under the new historical conditions, if the concept of total war is still used in the past to think and work, and if the military strategy based on total war is used to focus on local wars, it will lead to unnecessary waste and loss. This is because, regardless of the war preparation and war implementation, China's comprehensive war strategy guidance and local war strategy guidance are obviously different: comprehensive war based on the territory of the depth of the enemy, local war focuses on the shallow depth of the border, the air and the sea to win; comprehensive war to strive to drag the war to the long-lasting, local wars emphasize that as far as possible, rapid combat and quick decision; comprehensive war is usually through the early stages of the war's strategic defense War can only be transferred to strategic counter-offensive and offensive, local wars may start in the form of self-defense counterattacks, to take a limited scale of strategic offensive operations; comprehensive war requires comprehensive mobilization, the country to meet the enemy, local wars should try to avoid the expansion and escalation of the war to reduce the impact on the overall situation of the country. Only by changing the traditional thinking mode of total war, it is possible to establish the strategic guiding principles of the future war in line with the objective reality.

Secondly, we should actively explore the characteristics and laws of local wars under high-tech conditions. China has never faced a single style of local war, but the greatest threat and the most difficult to cope with in the future will be high-tech or local wars with high-tech characteristics. From the world's recent local wars, due to the use of high-tech weapons on the battlefield, making the suddenness of the war increased, the war's direct space to narrow the space and related space to expand the rhythm and process of the war accelerated significantly, the battlefield high transparency and long-distance precision strikes to change the traditional methods of combat, the status of the strategic air strikes greatly increased, the war, the war, the battle, the battle can sometimes be fused together, the front, the rear of the blurred boundaries, the combat security more complex, the combat security is more complex, and the war can be fought with a high degree of security. The boundaries of war, battle and combat can sometimes be blurred, the front and rear are blurred, combat security is more complex, and the limited purpose and scale of war may produce great harm and impact. To win the future high-tech local war, we must focus on its characteristics and development, seriously study new situations, solve new problems and explore new methods of warfare. In this process, we must study our opponents and ourselves; we must study how to bring into play the ability of the military services to conduct joint operations, and we must also study how to bring into play the combined power of the military and local forces; we must study the development trend of weapons and equipment and the issue of scientific combinations, and we must also study the issue of the scientific organization of people and weapons and equipment. In the final analysis, it is to adapt to the characteristics of modern warfare, to create a new method of local warfare under high-tech conditions with Chinese characteristics.

Thirdly, we should strengthen the preparation for military struggle with the main goal of winning local wars under high-tech conditions. The causes and types of localized wars are many and varied, and the manner and direction of their occurrence are also uncertain. It may be caused by disputes over land and sea boundaries, and may also be induced by other conflicts of interest; it may be fought with powerful enemy countries, and may also be fought with opponents with comparable strength or overall strength less than their own; it may occur in the direction of pre-preparation, but also in the direction of unexpected sudden outbreaks; it may be fought in the home territory of a certain depth, but also may be fought in the vicinity of the border; it may be land war, but also may be relatively independent of sea or air war. It may be a land war or a relatively independent naval or air war. Strategic guidance must take into account the impact of various complex factors and make multi-handed preparations, so as to be able to react quickly and flexibly once a situation arises. China's security environment is relatively complex, and it should make multi-directional and focused preparations, highlighting military countermeasures research and military struggle preparations in directions that may have a significant impact on national security, while taking into account other directions and handling the relationship between priorities and non-focuses. According to the characteristics of the future war more and more high technology, make great efforts to develop military high-tech, focusing on the development of the most urgent need for weapons and equipment, as soon as possible to have a few hands in the high-tech conditions of the enemy means; accelerate the pace of personnel training, and strive to create a large number of on the mastery of the modern war talents; systematically carry out the adjustment and reform of the institutional establishment, and gradually formed to adapt to the needs of the modern war of the institutional establishment.

Winning a local war under modern technology, especially high technology, should be based on the use of existing weapons and equipment to fight, inherit and carry forward the people's army with inferior equipment to defeat the enemy's excellent tradition of superior equipment. The modernization of weapons and equipment, depending on the state of national economic construction and the development of science and technology, is with the continuous improvement of the comprehensive national strength and the gradual realization of a time and process. Even if the economy for a longer period of time, weapons and equipment has improved, and may face a strong enemy will still be at a disadvantage. The overall level of the Chinese army's weaponry is still relatively low, and there are still relatively few high-technology weapons; this basic situation will not be completely changed for a long period of time. In this period, if the war, or to inferior equipment to defeat the superior equipment of the enemy. Operational guidance can only be based on the existing weapons and equipment, or can only be built on the basis of a little better than the existing weapons and equipment. Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "Our historical experience is to defeat the superior enemy with inferior equipment, because we are fighting a just war, a people's war. This is something we should have full confidence in." Looking back at the historical course of the Chinese Revolutionary War, our army has defeated the superiorly equipped enemy with inferior equipment. Whether it was the Ten-Year Agrarian Revolutionary War, the Eight-Year War of Resistance Against Japan, the Three-Year War of Liberation, or even the War of Resistance Against the United States and North Korea in the early years of the founding of New China, the wars were all won with inferior equipment.

War is a comprehensive competition between material and spiritual forces. Under the condition that high technology is widely used in the military field, the power of weapons and equipment has been increased unprecedentedly, and the impact on the war has been greatly enhanced. However, high-tech weaponry has not and cannot change the basic laws of war. The victory or defeat of modern war is ultimately determined by the nature of the war, the hearts and minds of the people, and people are still the decisive factor in the victory or defeat of war. The people mentioned here are those who recognize the people's own interests and fight for them with firm beliefs, and those who master advanced scientific and technological knowledge and have high military quality. Local wars under high-tech conditions, despite the fact that the form of war and the style of combat are different from those of the past, still have to mobilize and rely on the people to carry out the war, still have to rely on the people to master and use the weapons and equipments, and still need people's versatility, wisdom and the spirit of sacrifice. The more the weapons and equipment return to the exhibition, the more complex the technology, the higher the requirements for the quality of people, and the role of people has become more prominent and important. Especially in the case of weapons and equipment at a disadvantage, it is more necessary to give full play to the subjective initiative of people, play the advantages of the people's war, firmly establish the confidence of the dare to win, pay attention to the use of aggravation, the implementation of flexible strategic guidance, adhere to the you play your, I play my, Yang my strengths, hit the enemy's shortcomings to make up for the lack of weaponry, and ultimately defeat all the incoming enemy.

Three, under the conditions of high technology, we still have to adhere to the people's war

People's war is a product of the great revolutionary war practice of the leadership of the Chinese People's Party of the Chinese ****production party, is the fundamental principle of the masses of the people to create history, and the embodiment of the Party's mass line in the war. Adhere to the military strategy of active defense, fundamentally speaking, is to adhere to the strategic thinking of the people's war. Deng Xiaoping pointed out, "Our strategy was formulated by Chairman Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao's strategic thought is people's war"; "We are still adhering to people's war." The basic content of Mao Zedong's strategic thought of people's war is to mobilize the masses, organize the masses, arm the masses, and rely on the masses to conduct the war under the leadership of the Party, to build a people's army, to construct consolidated revolutionary bases, to implement a three-pronged system of armed forces combining field armies, local armies, and militias, to combine the armed struggle as the main form of struggle with various forms of struggle on various fronts, and to apply flexible and mobile Strategic Warfare