Executive Summary: The PLA’s new regulation on political cadres aims to reform a deeply entrenched political work system by emphasizing impartial personnel management and personal discipline. The regulation defines behavioral standards for political cadres across three main categories: core political logic, operational priorities, and personal... MORE

Executive Summary: Like many militaries around the world, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) places strong emphasis on Clausewitz’s concept of the center of gravity—the single most important and decisive operational problem to the PLA in a given phase or time window. A recent PLA Daily... MORE

Executive Summary: The parade equipment of the Cyberspace Force indicates that the PLA has drawn lessons from the Russia–Ukraine war, seeking to avoid making the same communications mistakes on future battlefields. The reorganized Cyberspace Force has already demonstrated its battlefield communications capability during disaster relief... MORE

Executive Summary: A new documentary on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Gongjian, presents an array of military hardware while showcasing operational competence. Highlighting the latest Fujian-class aircraft carrier and recent nuclear missiles tests while underscoring Party loyalty and spirit of sacrifice, the documentary signals to... MORE

Executive Summary: Chinese analysts see achievement of the 2027 Centennial Military Building Goal as being based on advances in three key dimensions: military modernization, military readiness, and anti-corruption work. Western analysts frequently link the 2027 Goal to readiness—if not a deadline—for a Taiwan scenario. Chinese... MORE

Executive Summary: For the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the AI era, dissipative warfare could be the theory that replaces attrition with a strategy focused on maintaining internal order and creating disorder in an adversary’s system. The strategy reflects a broader emphasis on intelligentized warfare... MORE

Executive Summary: For the first time, an official PRC publication explicitly defines its goal to “establish a world-class army” (建设世界一流军队) standards as equivalent to the “world’s strongest military”(​​实力最强的军队), marking a direct competitive framework with the United States and other leading powers. Released weeks before the... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) upcoming military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII will serve as both a symbolic display and an operational exercise, highlighting the PLA’s advancements in new combat domains—such as unmanned systems, directed energy, and... MORE

Executive Summary: The concurrent deployment of the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers beyond the First Island Chain represents a significant strategic milestone, highlighting the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) improved capability to coordinate complex naval operations and signaling a shift towards more sophisticated Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) operations... MORE

Executive Summary: In June 2025, the Liaoning and Shandong carrier strike groups conducted operations in the Western Pacific, achieving three major milestones with significant strategic implications for the U.S. military and Indo-Pacific regional states. The three key milestones include the first simultaneous deployment of two... MORE