Offensive Missions and Operations

A major transformation in thinking among PLA air – and spacepower analysts since the early 1990s has been their increasing emphasis on offen­sive missions and operations, and their growing faith in the broad strategic, campaign, and political utility of the offensive mission. Longtime PLAAF ana­lyst Min Zengfu traces this change in thinking, noting that during the 1970s and 1980s, the two major tasks set forth by the Central Military Commis­sion that defined the PLAAF’s mission were air defense of the national terri­tory and providing support for military combat operations of the infantry and navy. In the early 1990s, however, as part of China’s reorientation of its “pri­mary strategic direction” away from defense against the former Soviet Union and toward preventing Taiwan independence and securing China’s interests along its southeast coast, the PLAAF’s missions were redefined and expanded to include more offensive operations.23 Along with deterrence and air defense, the PLAAF’s capability to carry out offensive operations is now one of the three missions that attract the greatest emphasis and focus among analysts.

This increased emphasis on the offensive mission is reflected in the 2007 edition of the National Defense University’s The Science of Campaigns. The text notes that the PLAAF’s service mission of “being simultaneously prepared for offense and defense” (gongfang jianbei, ЖШШ%) is a combined offensive and defensive mission, but the authors then proceed to urge that the air force place greater focus on the active, offensive aspects of this mission.

The Air Force should implement the operational thinking of emphasiz­ing offense [zhuzhong jingong, while being simultaneously pre­

pared for offense and defense. The Air Force should give full play to its powerful aerial mobility, rapid speed, and long-distance strike capabilities, as well as its advantages in conducting multiple types of aerial missions.24

PLAAF analysts Cai Fengzhen and Tian Anping echo these thoughts, calling upon the air force to expand the role and power of offense and labeling this an “urgent task.”

China needs to readjust its attack-and-defense structure. The urgent task facing China is to increase the ratio and power of its offensive combat strength and to increase the quality of its defense, while at the same time reducing the scope of its defense. To be able to simultaneously attack and defend has become a short-term objective for China to achieve.25