The Armed Forces of China (The Armed Forces of Asia)

Rating:
Summary: The Armed Forces of China
Review: I found this 1999 book to be a disappointment. I was looking for the latest presentation of the PLA. A much better introduction to the PLA already exists in the June 1996 #146 edition of The China Quarterly. Possibly the paucity in Group Army and basic information is attributable to the fact that an Australian professor edited it and not a person of military note.

The book only touches on the fact (pg 5) that the 25 Chinese Army Groups comprise the basic combat organizations. It implies not surprisingly that these are not fixed organizations but may be tailored as heavy or light depending upon the terrain and their missions. The book calls these "three three" structures which American military has since W.W.II identified as triangular organizations. I would like to have seen three or four organizational schematic examples of the Group Army in these various configurations: light, heavy, and mountain. The highly-touted Rapid Deployment Units as well as the organization of an airborne division are missing. These are supposedly China's crack organizations yet only two pages are devoted to them.

I had hoped the book would have shown an organizational chart (pg. 52) of each generalized possibility or manifestation of the basic Army Group. After all, the Army Group deserves this attention because it is, in fact, the keystone of the Chinese Army. Unfortunately, the book has but one cursory chart with 11 boxes and within one box it merely depicts "24 GAs" and not the 25 mentioned on pg. 5. For some inexplicable reason the book deals with the 27th, 31st, 38th, 39th, 47th and 54th Group Armies but makes no mention of the remaining 19. A chart giving their locations would have been useful together with a schematic illustrating the width and depth of a Group Army's deployment area for both defense and attack.

In short, I found the book to barely be even a summarization of the essays in the above cited copy of The China Quarterly; it presented nothing but very broad and not particularly new brushstrokes, long on budget and space and short on nuts and bolts. It touched upon RMA or Revolution in Military Affairs but that, too, is an old subject that has already been explained ad nauseum elsewhere and in much greater detail.

I suppose I had hoped for too much. For once, I had anticipated a handbook that would generally encompass what is expected of the title of the book "The Armed Forces of China." It isn't there.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading at the Australian Defence Force Academy
Review: I'll just let you all know that this book is one of 2 that are required reading at the Australian Defence Force Academy (the Aussies' version of our West Point, Annapolis, and Air Force Academy all rolled up into one). They have one class there that is strictly an analysis of the modern PLA, taught by a professor from the PRC. Just FYI, the second required book is:

China's Security - The New Roles of the Military

And the suggested reading list is:

Lampton, David M. ed., The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001).
Swaine, Michael D. Interpreting China's Grand Strategy: Past, Present, and Future (Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2000).
Mulvenon, James C., Andrew N. D. Yang, Seeking Truth From Facts: A Retrospective on Chinese Military Studies in the Post-Mao Era (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2001).
Mulvenon, James C. and Richard H. Yang, The People's Liberation Army in the Information Age (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 1999).
Bickford, Thomas J., Marching into the Abyss: The Changing Role of the People's Liberation Army in Chinese Politics (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1995).
Segal, Gerald and Richard H. Yang,, (eds.), Chinese Economic Reform: The Impact on Security (London: Routledge, 1996).
Zheng, Shiping, Party vs. State in Post 1949 China: the Institutional Dilemma (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

As you can see, the Aussies take the PRC very seriously.

Rating:
Summary: A Decent Survey
Review: This is not a deeply thought book and its material seems to imply that it was written in 1997 even though it was published two years later, so do not expect to find any timely new insight. What this book has is a very methodically written survey of China's armed forces from how its history effects its modernization, its organization structure, and order of battle. The most helpful thing that You Ji provides is the names of specific Chinese staff officers and strategists and the stance that they take on various issues. I think that this book will provide a good roadmap for someone beginning a study of Chinese strategic policy.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading at the Australian Defence Force Academy
Review: You Ji's book is uniquely helpful to anyone interested in China's military. So many books and articles rely upon speculation and exageration when examining the PLA. However, with clear facts and interesting perspectives from Chinese source material, this book presents a solid analysis of the "modern" PLA and the challenges it faces. The evaluation therefore focuses more on naval and air forces rather than the "three three" structure of the group armies. For an American reader concerned about Pacific strategy, this concentration should not be a problem.

No time is wasted with drawn out and replayed history of the Long March. That can be found elsewhere. You Ji instead tells the reader where China's military wants to go and what obstacles lie ahead. Maximizing new sources and perspectives, he presents a clear analysis.

Rating:
Summary: Useful and Well Researched Review
Review: You Ji's book is uniquely helpful to anyone interested in China's military. So many books and articles rely upon speculation and exageration when examining the PLA. However, with clear facts and interesting perspectives from Chinese source material, this book presents a solid analysis of the "modern" PLA and the challenges it faces. The evaluation therefore focuses more on naval and air forces rather than the "three three" structure of the group armies. For an American reader concerned about Pacific strategy, this concentration should not be a problem.

No time is wasted with drawn out and replayed history of the Long March. That can be found elsewhere. You Ji instead tells the reader where China's military wants to go and what obstacles lie ahead. Maximizing new sources and perspectives, he presents a clear analysis.