According to a US Defense Department report, China’s strategy aims to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” by 2049 in order to match or surpass US global influence and power, displace US alliances and security partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, and revise the international order to be more advantageous to Beijing’s authoritarian system and national interests.
According to the report, this strategy can be described as a determined pursuit of wide-ranging efforts to expand the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) national power.
The PRC has defined strategic competition as a rivalry between powerful nation states as well as a clash of opposing ideological systems.
Beijing sees the US as becoming more determined to contain the PRC, potentially impeding its strategy. Furthermore, the leaders of the People’s Republic of China are becoming more willing to confront the United States and other countries in areas where their interests diverge.
The People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy seeks to establish a “community of common destiny” to support its strategy of achieving “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Beijing’s revisionist ambition for the international order stems from the Party’s political and governing systems, as well as the objectives of its national strategy.
The People’s Republic of China acknowledged in 2019 that its armed forces should play a more active role in advancing its foreign policy, emphasising the increasingly global character that Beijing attributes to its military power.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a driving force behind the PRC’s foreign policy efforts in 2020, as Beijing sought to deflect any blame for the virus’s initial spread and capitalise on its narrative of domestic success and foreign assistance.
The PRC’s military modernization goals are in line with, and part of, Beijing’s broader national development goals. Economic, technological, political, social, and security development efforts in the People’s Republic of China are mutually reinforcing and support Beijing’s strategy of shaping international and regional environments that accept and facilitate Beijing’s interests.
The PRC’s leaders emphasise the importance of transforming the PLA into a “world-class” military force by the end of 2049 as a critical component of its strategy to revitalise the PRC into a “great modern socialist country.”
The PLA added a new milestone for modernization in 2027 in order to accelerate the integrated development of the PRC’s armed forces’ mechanisation, informatization, and intelligence, which if realised would provide Beijing with more credible military options in the event of a Taiwan contingency.
