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Chinese Military Strategist Assesses Sino-Russian Joint Exercises

Posted on: Friday, 26 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report by apprentice staff reporter Chia Lei entitled: "Significance of Sino-Russian exercise is in displaying presence"; published by Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao web site on 26 August

Beijing, 25 August: The curtain rang down today on the week-long Sino-Russian joint military exercise "Peace Mission 2005" which attracted attention from all quarters. A Ta Kung Pao reporter has interviewed the well-known military strategic expert Wang Xiangsui to ask him to comment on this exercise.

Wang Xiangsui holds the view that there were three characteristics in this exercise in comparison with previous exercises in which China participated: First of all, the strategic significance outweighed the tactical significance. This exercise expressed more the strategic cooperation attitude displayed by two northeast Asian powers. In the past the Chinese government pursued a policy of not forming alliances and did not engage in much military cooperation with other countries. Russia was also relatively "restrained" in the far east region, and its previous exercises were mainly in the European region, and the main factor was force delivery from Europe to Asia. As a result of this exercise, the two northeast Asian powers have taken a deeper step at the cooperation level, and expressed their own strategic transformations; their cooperation is more positive and proactive.

The second characteristic is the profound significance of the exercise subjects. China and Russia have emphasized that the aim of the exercise was to combat terrorism and was not directed at any third country. In fact naval, ground and air weapons were all employed, and it was a comprehensive, complete and modern exercise, involving all kinds of advanced hardware. Although the manpower used was not that large, the scale was not small in terms of actual combat exercises. Judging by the exercise subjects process, if the stress was on combating terrorism, it was a large antiterrorism exercise.

The third characteristic is that, viewed from the strategic level, the rank of the commanders on both sides was higher than in any previous exercise, and the on-the-spot observers were also of relatively high rank, for instance, the national defence ministers of both countries were present.

Wang Xiangsui said this joint exercise was very good tempering for the Chinese armed forces and also opened a new phase in international politics. He holds the view that there may be more such multinational, multilateral and overlapping military exercises in the future. And such an event displays presence rather than force, that is, "my force is not negligible", and the aim is to preserve northeast Asian stability; it does not play more of a deterrent and threatening role, as in the Cold War.

Wang Xiangsui quite agrees that this military exercise shows that mutual military trust between the two sides has reached a new level. He said, China and Russia did not cooperate in this fashion in the past; as a result of this exercise, each side knows the real situation regarding each other's unit mobilization and operational methods; they could only do this if the degree of trust is very high. At the same time he emphasized that this does not mean a Sino- Russian military alliance; the Russian side specifically hopes to provide such an image for others, and this accords with reality; China too does not hold the view that the two sides are moving to the stage of forming alliance. Sino-Russian relations, however, have after all taken a step forward.

Wang Xiangsui said in conclusion, Sino-Russian joint military exercises will not become permanent or periodic. This is because it is evident from this exercise that whether at the national or the armed forces level, both sides have a process of continuous grinding together [Chinese: mo he] and adaptation to each other. If military exercises become permanent and periodic, this will arouse reaction from other military blocs, which will not accord with the interests of the two nations, the region and the world.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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