Author Description

The title of this volume, "The Lessons of History: The Chinese People's Liberation Army at 75," captures well the overall theme of the twelve chapters that follow. The primary focus is not on summarizing the lessons that analysts or scholars from outside China have learned when they look back at the past three-quarters of a century of Chinese military history. Rather, the emphasis of this volume is to assess key lessons that the top ranks of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have drawn from their own military's 75-year history. The primary value of this volume, we believe, is that it provides insights into what Chinese military leaders themselves take from their past. The PLA is certainly not monolithic and to attribute a single, collective point of view is foolish, if not futile. Nevertheless, the contributors to this volume attempt to distill lessons learned by the Chinese military as an institution. However, in many cases, it is impossible to assert with 100 percent reliability what precise lessons have been gleaned by the PLA. Wherever possible, the contributors have used Chinese published source material originating from within what Paul Godwin calls "China's Defense Establishment." Moreover, it should be noted that the analyses in this volume are based entirely on open source materials.1. Introduction: The Lesson Learned by China's Soldiers * 2. China's Defense Establishment: The Hard Lessons of Incomplete Modernization * 3. PLA Ground Forces Lessons Learned: Experience and Theory * 4. PLA Air Force, 1949-2002: Overview and Lessons Learned * 5. The People's Liberation Army Navy after Half a Century: Lessons Learned in Beijing * 6. The People's Liberation Army and China's Space and Missile Development: Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future * 7. How Beijing Evaluates Military Campaigns: An Initial Assessment * 8. From Surprise to Stalemate: What the People's Liberation Army Learned from the Korean War -- A Half-Century Later * 9. Concentrating Forc