March 2013 Newsletter

On February 28, The Jamestown Foundation hosted its Third Annual China Defense and Security Conference. Held in Washington, DC, the conference brought together a range of experts on China’s foreign policy, military, internal security and defense industry to offer a comprehensive discussion of Chinese security issues. A DVD of the all-day event is available for sale on the Jamestown website. 

Jamestown board member Admiral Timothy Keating (USN, Ret.) opened the conference with an informal exercise to illustrate the pressures U.S. military officers face when operating on China’s maritime periphery. The potential for any incident made under such pressure to become an international incident, like the USNS Impeccable incident in 2009, illustrated the need to keep engaging the Chinese. Keating believed the risks of not engaging the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) outweighed the frustrations of doing so. 

The first panel of the day explored China’s transitions, domestic and international, as the country goes through a leadership transition and faces a new set of responsibilities on the global stage. Jamestown Senior Fellow Willy Lam evaluated China’s new leadership and their effect on Chinese policy, suggesting the new president, Xi Jinping, is pushing more aggressive Chinese actions. Michael Chase and Lu Yeh-Cheng examined how Beijing views China’s role in the world as well as the contradictions between its interests and its principles. 

The second panel focused on the military modernization trends within the conventional forces, offering a look at the PLA’s doctrinal, technological and training developments. Kevin McCauley discussed how the PLA is thinking about and preparing for a new kind C4ISR-enabled doctrine, while Kenneth Allen assessed the evolution of PLA Air Force training and the effects on Chinese capabilities. Andrew Erickson previewed his forthcoming Jamestown report on China’s anti-ship ballistic missile, addressing the weapon’s implications. 

The third panel explored the orientation and modernization of China’s internal security apparatus and how it has evolved to meet the country’s unrest. Dennis Blasko showed how the PLA, despite its lip service to preserving the party, has focused on more strictly military missions. Scot Tanner and Peter Mattis discussed how the paramilitary and police forces have attempted to integrate intelligence into their operations for greater efficiency. Although the situation is not as dire as it was a decade ago, the domestic security forces remain concerned with their ability to keep unrest down. 

The final panel of the day examined Chinese civil-military integration, highlighting how the defense industrial base has modernized. The three panelists—Joe McReynolds, Matt Luce and Dean Cheng—explored the ideas, people and an industry case study, respectively, that illustrate how Chinese industry has become innovative in select high-tech sectors. 

Jamestown board member General Michael V. Hayden (USAF, Ret.) provided the closing remarks to this year’s China Defense and Security  Conference with a short speech entitled “China and the Cyber Challenge.” In a wide-ranging discussion of China and cyber-security, General Hayden admitted “Look, as a professional, I just  stand back in awe of breath, depth, persistence and sophistication of Chinese espionage effort against the United States.” He highlighted China’s cyber espionage as a sign of the changing  U.S. relationship with and the new challenges posed by China. General Hayden recommended Washington “make Chinese cyber behavior an integral part of the portfolio of Sino-U.S. relations.”

President Damon Wilson. 

In his remarks, Cornell noted that over the past two decades, Georgia was able to reverse its state failure of the early 1990s and replaced it with significant democratic, judicial and market reforms, which is extremely rare in international affairs. On the other hand, he pointed to several shortcomings in Georgia’s reform process, including an emphasis on state building at the expense of developing a democratic political culture, poor media freedom, intimidation of opposition parties and a political policy of ends justifying the means. Wilson, a former U.S. government official, offered a policymaker’s viewpoint. He stated that political cohabitation in Georgia is not working and that the new government needs to uphold rule of law instead of seeking revenge through selective

prosecutions of former officials and opposition party members. He asserted that for the good of Georgia’s security, the transatlantic U.S.-EU relationship must be solid; Georgia remains an issue of consequence for both the U.S. and the EU; and he argued that the United States remains a European power, but the EU is not finished finding its role in Eastern Europe, and European enlargement must continue. Socor underscored that billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s election to prime minister represents a direct threat of state capture, which is undermining the unfinished process of nation building in Georgia. Furthermore, he noted that the new governing coalition, which is financially dependent on Ivanishvili’s financing, is composed of a variety of parties with few, if any,

unifying characteristics, but which is composed of individuals who are on average older, more pro-Russian, inexperienced and rarely educated in the West as compared to the previous Mikheil Saakashvili-led government. He concluded by saying that the United States should continue to uphold NATO’s open door policy toward Tbilisi, support the Georgian position on Russia’s occupation of its breakaway territories, and underscore Georgia’s and the South Caucasus’ strategic role as a transit and energy transmission corridor from the Caspian to Europe.

To watch the full conference video online, as well as read the speaker biographies, please click here.