Compass Points – China Power

Send in the Marine MAGTFs!

Compass Points – China Power

Send in the Marine MAGTFs!

December 19, 2024

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Congress requires an annual report on China’s military power. On December 18, 2024, the Department of Defense released its latest report on China. The threat from China is still growing.

Below are some of the key takeaways from the China Military Power Report.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

► Expanding PRC National Power to Confront a Strategic Environment that Beijing Views as Increasingly Turbulent. The PRC aims to accrue national power through political, social, economic, technological, and military development to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” by 2049. With this power, the PRC seeks to revise the international order in support of the PRC’s system of governance and national interests.

► Increasing PRC Military Coercion. Since late 2023, the PLA reduced the number of coercive and risky air intercepts of U.S. platforms compared to the previous two years, though it continues to conduct unsafe maneuvers in the vicinity of allied forces operating in the region.

► Developments in PRC Defense Industry. The PRC has the world’s leading hypersonic missile arsenal and has advanced its development of both conventional and nuclear-armed hypersonic missile technologies over the past 20 years. Similarly, the PRC is capable of producing a wide range of naval combatants, weapons, and electronic systems, making it nearly self-sufficient for all shipbuilding needs.

► Intensifying Pressure Against Taiwan. In 2023, the PRC increased diplomatic, political, and military pressure against Taiwan. Throughout the year, the PRC continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by maintaining a naval presence around Taiwan, increasing crossings into Taiwan’s self-declared centerline and Air Defense Identification Zone, and conducting highly publicized major military exercises near Taiwan.

► Deepening PRC-Russia Ties. In 2023, the PRC maintained robust support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. It promoted Russian narratives blaming the United States and NATO for the war, buoyed Russia’s economy against international sanctions, and sold Russia dual use inputs that Russia’s military industries rely on. The PRC almost certainly is applying lessons from Russia’s war against Ukraine toward its own strategic objectives and coercive activities.

► Continuing PRC Resistance to Military-to-Military Communications with the United States. In 2023, the PLA largely denied, cancelled, and ignored recurring bilateral engagements and DoD requests for communication.

then, in November 2023, President Biden and PRC leader President Xi Jinping agreed that the United States and the PRC would resume military-to-military communication at all levels. DoD is committed to maintaining.

open lines of communication with the PRC to ensure competition does not veer into conflict.

-- 2024 CHINA MILITARY POWER REPORT

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When the report discusses PLA strategy and capabilities, it opens the door wide to the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF).

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PLA STRATEGY IN CONTEXT

► One key part of this defense policy is the PRC’s approach to counter-intervention, which aims to restrict lawful U.S. presence in the East and South China Sea regions and limit U.S. access in the broader Indo-Pacific region. At the same time, the PRC is strengthening its reach farther into the Pacific Ocean and beyond.

PLA CAPABILITIES

► The PLA remains focused on developing capabilities for the PRC to dissuade, deter, or if ordered defeat third-party intervention in the Indo-Pacific region.

-- 2024 CHINA MILITARY POWER REPORT

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China is not only a power in the Pacific, it is a growing global power. But in the Pacific China is a constant bully.

For example, nearly every week off the coast of the Philippines some arm or proxy of the PLA Navy is confronting Philippine civilians and military. The US needs to stand firm against China throughout the Pacific. Deterrence requires being present day after day after day.

For decades when the Soviet Union was the major threat to the United States, there was great danger that Soviet tank divisions would roll through the Fulda Gap in a bid to quickly conquer all of Europe. The US Army stationed its own tanks on the western side of the Fulda Gap. The Soviet tank attack never came. Deterrence resulted from the daily presence and daily power of US tank units.

Today, the US needs to deter China in the Pacific. If China was being sufficiently deterred today, it would be staging fewer confrontations in the South China Sea. Instead, the China threat continues to grow.

The US needs Marines onboard Navy ships patrolling the waterways of the Pacific. From port to port, from exercise to exercise, the constant power and presence of Marine MAGTFs. and Special Purpose MAGTFs are a flexible deterrent force to China throughout the Pacific.

It is not enough to threaten China with missiles and drones. What is needed is US forces patrolling the Pacific reassuring our allies and deterring China one day at a time.

As the report on China makes clear, China “aims to restrict lawful U.S. presence in the East and South China Sea regions.” Every MAGTF on patrol in the Pacific, every port call, every exercise, pushes back against China. Without starting World War III, Marines in the Pacific can be a constant deterrent force.

If China was being deterred, the risk of war would be going down. But China is not being sufficiently deterred. Lack of deterrence means the danger of war continues.

As serious as the threat from China is, the US has other serious challenges around the globe and always will. Neither the US nor the Marine Corps can afford to be myopically focused only on the Pacific. When US policy makers are suddenly faced with a crisis or a number of crises around the world, what military tool can they reach for? The answer is America’s 9-1-1 force, the global, combined arms Marine MAGTF. MAGTFs are not limited to the Pacific. The flexible, combined arms Marine MAGTF is a global force. When Marines are onboard Navy ships patrolling not just the Pacific, but all the oceans of the world, allies are reassured, alliances are strengthened, and enemies are deterred.

It is time to once again to have Marine MAGTFs in the Western Pacific and around the world 24/7/365!

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U.S. Department of Defense

FACT SHEET

2024 CHINA MILITARY POWER REPORT

https://media.defense.gov/2024/Dec/18/2003615417/-1/-1/0/2024-CMPR-FACT-SHEET.PDF