Xi Jinping disbanded the Strategic Support Force, with the stated aim of helping China’s military “fight and win in modern warfare”.

China has launched the biggest restructuring of its military in nearly a decade, focusing on technology-based strategic forces equipped for modern warfare, as Beijing battles Washington for military supremacy in a region rife with geopolitical tensions , reports CNN.

In a surprise move last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping disbanded the Strategic Support Force (SSF), a military branch he created in 2015 to integrate the People’s Army’s space, cyber, electronic and psychological warfare capabilities. Release as part of a sweeping overhaul of the armed forces.

In its place, Xi inaugurated the Information Support Force, which he said was “a brand new strategic branch of the PLA and a key supporter of the coordinated development and application of the networked information system.”

The new force will play an important role in helping China’s military “fight and win in modern warfare,” he said at a ceremony last Friday.

At a press conference the same day, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Defense appeared to suggest that the SSF had effectively been split into three units – the Information Support Force, the Aerospace Force and the Cyberspace Force – which would respond directly in before the Central Military Commission, the body at the top of the military chain of command headed by Xi.

Under the new structure, the PLA now consists of four services — the army, navy, air force and missile force — plus four arms: the three units spun off from the SSF and the Joint Logistics Support Force, according to ministry spokesman Wu Qian .

Chinese military experts say the reorganization increases Xi’s direct control over the PLA’s strategic capabilities and underscores China’s ambitions to better master artificial intelligence and other new technologies to prepare for what it calls the “smart war” of the future.

The reshuffle follows Xi’s sweeping purge of the PLA last year in the name of anti-corruption, which cracked down on powerful generals and shook up the missile force, an elite branch that oversees China’s booming nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal.

The information support force will be led by top generals from the defunct SSF.

SSF deputy commander Bi Yi has been named commander of the new unit, while SSF political commissar Li Wei will have the same role in the Information Support Force, according to state news agency Xinhua.

No new appointment to another position of SSF Commander Ju Qiansheng was mentioned. Last year, it disappeared from public view amid an avalanche of military purges, before finally re-emerging at a conference in late January.

“Better visibility”

Longtime PLA watchers say this new reorganization is unlikely to be the result of recent anti-corruption purges, but rather a reflection that the SSF was not an ideal organizational format for the Chinese military.

“This shows that the SSF was not a satisfactory solution. It reduced Xi’s visibility over important functions and didn’t really improve coordination,” said Joel Wuthnow, a senior research fellow at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University.

Before its disbandment, the SSF had two main units – the Aerospace Systems Department, which oversaw the APL’s space and reconnaissance operations, and the Network Systems Department, tasked with cyber, electronic, and psychological warfare capabilities.

“I think the new structure will give Xi better visibility into what’s going on in space, cyberspace and network management. These functions will now be overseen at his level and not through the Strategic Support Force, which served as an intermediary,” Wuthnow said.

The lack of such visibility could carry high risks, especially in times of heightened tension and deep mistrust between Beijing and Washington.

Last year, the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon after it crossed the continental United States. The incident sparked a new crisis between the two powers and plunged bilateral relations into a deep freeze for months.

Although US intelligence officials said the balloon was part of a broad surveillance program led by the Chinese military, Xi may not have been aware of the mission.

US President Joe Biden said last June that the Chinese leader did not know about the balloon and was “very embarrassed” when it was shot down after drifting off course in US airspace.

James Char, a researcher at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said conducting strategic reconnaissance during the spy balloon incident would have been the responsibility of the SSF’s Aerospace Systems Department.

“That was one of the roles and responsibilities of PLASSF,” he said.

It is unclear whether the balloon incident contributed to Xi’s decision to disband the SSF.

Wuthnow, of the National Defense University, said the newly created Information Support Force will likely take over the task of defending communications and networks for the PLA.

“Getting these things right is of huge importance to the PLA in any future conflict, and they have paid close attention to these functions and probably learned lessons for their own organization from the war in Ukraine,” he said, referring to to Russia’s ongoing invasion of its neighbor.

“So it makes sense that the president [Comisiei Militare Centrale] to want to play a more direct role in this area”.

“Smart War”

The latest reshuffle is likely the result of an ongoing review of how the military can better meet the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s strategic goals, according to Char.

“I suppose the reorganization better reflects the importance the APL has placed on accelerating the development of intelligent warfare” brought on by a new round of technological and industrial advances, he said.

The concept of “smart war” gained attention in a 2019 Chinese defense white paper that highlighted the military application of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, big data and cloud computing.

“The landscape of international military competition is undergoing historic changes. New and high-tech military technologies, with information technology as their core, are advancing day by day, and there is a prevailing trend to develop long-range, intelligent, invisible, or unmanned precision weaponry and equipment,” the book states. white.

“Warfare is accelerating its evolution towards computerized warfare, and intelligent warfare is on the horizon.”

The creation of the Information Support Force as a new branch directly under the Central Military Commission also underscores the importance of information dominance in modern warfare.

A commentary in the PLA Daily, China’s main military publication, described networked information technology as the “biggest variable” in improving combat capability.

“Modern wars are contests between systems and structures, where control of information equals control of the initiative in war,” the article says.

The emphasis on information dominance and “smart warfare” also has significant implications for any potential future conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

The Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan part of its territory, although it has never controlled it, and has vowed to take control of the island — by force, if necessary.

Char said that in the event of a conflict in Taiwan, the Information Support Force “would likely take the spearhead role in supporting the PLA’s attempts to dominate the information space before Beijing’s adversaries can do so.”