CHINA’S DEFENSE WHITE PAPER

BEIJING ELEVATES CORE SECURITY CONCEPTS

Timothy Heath

Asia Times, April 30, 2013

China organized this year's defense white paper around the historic missions concept as the principal framework for understanding the mission and activities of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The concept of "core interests", a key driver of the historic missions, featured prominently in the white paper as well [1].

The high profile accorded these concepts reflects their enhanced authoritativeness as well as China's increased power and influence. For these reasons, Beijing can be expected to step up efforts to both consolidate control of its sovereignty claims and shape a favorable international order.

The title of this year's defense white paper, "The Diversified Employment of China's Armed Forces", refers to the "diversified tasks" (duoyanghua renwu) the heart of the "historic missions of the armed forces in the new period of the new century", often referred to simply as the "historic missions".

The missions concept refers to strategic guidance that then-Central Military Commission (CMC) chairman Hu Jintao provided to the military in late 2004 and which has been mentioned in defense white papers since 2006.

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