As in the past, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a mobilization order for the training of the armed forces, the first order of the Central Military Commission (CMC) in 2022 on January 04.
As per the order outlined in China Military Online, the “rank and file of the armed forces are required to resolutely implement the plans and instructions of the Party leadership and the CMC”.
The Order highlighted the, “changing landscape of national security and combat circumstances must be accurately understood”.
In addition it exhorted the armed forces to, “closely follow the evolution of technology, warfare and rivals, redouble their efforts to better combine training with combat operations, and strengthen systematic training and the use of technologies to develop an elite force that is capable of fighting and winning wars”.
Emphasis on Combat Morale and Motivation
As a signaling for morale and motivation the order stated that, “All officers and soldiers should uphold the spirit of fearing neither death nor hardship, and conduct training in a vigorous, well-designed and safe manner to boost their commanding and fighting capability and foster excellent conduct, said the order”.
China Military Online indicated that “on the eve of New Year's Day, a reporter from the China Central Television (CCTV) traveled more than 5,000 kilometers from Beijing to the Karakoram Plateau, taking a special national flag to a frontier defense company where Xiao Siyuan, one of the four martyrs who sacrificed their lives to safeguard China's national sovereignty and territory in June 2020, was assigned to”.
The “national flag was raised at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing on August 1, 2021, the 94th anniversary of the founding of the PLA”.
The report also highlighted that “Standing below the eight Chinese characters "da hao he shan, cun tu bu rang" ("Not a single inch of China's beautiful land to be ceded"), the frontier defense troops received the national flag and held a flag-raising ceremony”.
“Singing national anthem, they vowed to safeguard China's national sovereignty and territory with their lives,” as per China Military Online.
The location on the Karakoram Plateau referred to in the release has been identified by the Indian media as the Galwan Valley location of the standoff in June 2020.
PLA Commences 2022 Training
On the same day January 04, the PLA Army organised mobilisation ceremony and new training session at the training.
Officers and soldiers donned the “new Type-21 winter combat uniforms were fully armed with high morale”.
More like a ceremonial beginning China Military Online reported that, “30 military aircrafts soared into the sky and successively performed preemptive fire strikes, UAV reconnaissance, and troops’ airlanding from helicopters for ground combats”.
Other capabilities demonstrated were, “special operations, long-distance fire strike, intelligence reconnaissance, electronic countermeasures and air assault,”
Amongst modernisation the PLA is giving emphasis on “special operations force, long-range firepower strike force and army aviation force—along with--- utilization of more drones, helicopters and long-range firepower strike force,” to “perform mobile operations and multi-dimensional offense and defense,” as per China Military Online.
Manoj Kewalramani notes “Interestingly, the text begins with: 我命令: I order”. Other commentators have also remarked the personalised nature of Xi Jinping’s annual mobilisation which is shorter than the previous years and lack specifics See Thread below shared by Manoj Kewalramani through Tracking People’s Daily SubStack.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The PLA's annual training mobilization order, which launches training activities for 2022, was issued yesterday and appeared "above the fold" in today's PLA Daily. <a href="https://t.co/WTSU08hOiQ">https://t.co/WTSU08hOiQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/OqOvlJSv5p">pic.twitter.com/OqOvlJSv5p</a></p>— M. Taylor Fravel (@fravel) <a href="https://twitter.com/fravel/status/1478566020067516419?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Conclusion
Keeping in view the Training Mobilisation order, the PLA is expected to upgrade combat potential for launching multi domain and multi dimensional operations using air and helicopter supported by long range air strikes integrating electronic counter measures.
In the larger perspective the aim is a high degree of efficiency and effectiveness with development of elite force integrating technology and keeping pace with competitors – obviously USA and India amongst others.