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                     China's PLA to Troops: Prepare for War

   by Matthew Hilburn

   As tensions between China and Japan escalate, China's People's
   Liberation Army (PLA) has been told to prepare for war in a training
   directive issued by the General Staff Headquarters, which oversees the
   entire PLA.
   "The PLA and the Chinese People's Armed Police Force (APF) should focus
   closely on the objective of being able to fight and winning battle,
   vigorously strengthen real-combat-like military training, practice and
   innovate the training mode under information-based conditions and
   intensify efforts to cultivate new-type and high-caliber military
   personnel," according to [1]a reference to the directive on the English
   version of the People's Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper
   of the PLA. The directive was issued in Chinese and is entitled
   "Instructions on the PLA's Military Training in 2013."
   Past directives have largely focused on coordination among the various
   PLA branches, in contrast to the strong language of this year's
   version.
   "What has attracted attention is that the directive has called on
   Chinese forces to be prepared to fight using a particular Chinese
   term," said Taylor Fravel, an expert on Chinese foreign policy and
   security at MIT.
   The term, according to a report in the [2]South China Morning Post, is
   dazhang, which means "fighting wars." The phrase did not appear in last
   year's directive.
   While the official directive does not mention Japan, [3]a commentary
   about the directive also appearing in the People's Liberation Army
   Daily makes clear that Japan is the would-be adversary.
   Citing escalating tensions with Japan over the ongoing dispute over the
   Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, the commentary claims the new administration of
   Japanese  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is working to "draw" Vietnam, the
   Philippines and other East Asian countries together "to contain China."
   "Japan's Self-Defense Forces have held very frequent drills focused on
   the Diaoyu Islands for the past days, and boasted of firing warning
   shots at China's marine surveillance ships," according to the
   commentary, which is signed by Guo Jianyue, a senior reporter at the
   newspaper. "This confrontation between China and Japan, which has been
   so rare since World War II, has escalated from the original air force
   mutual monitoring over the waters around the Diaoyu Islands to the
   verge of war."
   Despite the rhetoric, Allen Carlson, an associate professor of
   government at Cornell University, said China could be merely sabre
   rattling.
   "I still think, and perhaps I am wrong, that most of this is bluffing,
   an extreme form of such an action, and not one that is not without the
   risk of escalation, but still falls short of an actual declaration of
   war, and from direct military engagement," he said.
   Carlson added that China has not engaged in direct military conflict of
   any sustained kind since 1979 with Vietnam.
   "Now, past performance is no guarantee of future outcomes, but until
   this line is crossed, I will continue to think that Beijing is likely
   to want to stop short of it," he said.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [4]http://www.voanews.com/content/chinas-peoples-liberation-army-pla-pr
   epare-for-war/1585348.html

References

   1. http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2013-01/14/content_5181037.htm
   2. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1128164/pla-officials-say-troops-are-prepare-war-amid-territorial-disputes-japan
   3. http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2013-01/16/content_5184285.htm
   4. http://www.voanews.com/content/chinas-peoples-liberation-army-pla-prepare-for-war/1585348.html