contingencies, often with light arms, and patrol regularly around disputed South China Sea features even during fishing moratoriums.
The Tanmen Maritime Militia is another prominent CMM unit. Homeported in Tanmen township on Hainan Island, the formation was described by Xi as a “model maritime militia unit” during a visit to Tanmen harbor in 2013. During the visit, Xi encouraged Tanmen to support “island and reef development” in the SCS. Between 1989 and 1995, the Tanmen Maritime Militia, under the authority of the PLAN Southern Theater Navy (then the South Sea Fleet), was involved in the occupation and reclamation of PRC outposts in the Spratly Islands, including Subi Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, and Mischief Reef.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES
Key Takeaways
- Despite unilateral and multilateral training, all of China’s SOF units lack real-world combat experience.
- China’s SOF does not have a national-level special operations command to oversee all of China’s SOF activities.
- Despite an emphasis to conduct joint training, theater commanders have no authority over PAP units, making it difficult to incorporate PAP SOF into PLA training exercises.
- The PRC categorizes its non-traditional security threats as terrorism (domestic and international), separatism (entities looking to break away from China such Taiwan, Tibet, and the Uyghur minority population in western China), and extremism (primarily religious).
In late 2015, the PRC’s SOF were impacted by a series of reforms that aimed to “reorganize troops and rebuild new-type combat forces. New types of combat forces have been enhanced to conduct special operations, all-dimensional offense and defense, amphibious operations, far seas protection, and strategic projection, aiming to make the force composition complete, combined, multi-functional, and flexible.” In 2016, additional changes to Chinese law were made authorizing the PRC’s SOF to conduct operations outside of China’s borders.
Mission. The PRC’s SOF are tasked to conduct three primary missions; direct action, special reconnaissance, and counterterrorism. The goal of the PRC’s SOF operations are to prepare the battlefield for their conventional force counterparts by attacking critical areas, degrading enemy operational systems and capabilities, and delaying or disrupting enemy operational activities. In conventional warfare, the PRC’s SOF missions include, but are not limited to, disrupting rear echelon formations and activities, destroying or securing key targets, decapitation, and targeting for fire support. The PRC’s SOF can also conduct humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) missions, noncombatant evacuation operations (NEO), and personal security assignments. While PLA SOF can conduct counterterrorism missions, PAP SOF are specifically tasked with this
82
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
