MILITARY ATTACHÉ PRESENCE
The PRC’s military attaché presence continues to grow globally, reflecting the PRC’s increasing interests in military modernization and partnerships. Military Attaché offices manage the day-to-day overseas military diplomacy efforts in over 110 offices worldwide. The attachés serve as military advisors to the ambassador, and support Ministry of Foreign Affairs and PLA foreign policy objectives. They also perform a variety of PLA military and security cooperation duties, including counterpart exchanges with host-nation and third-country personnel. Additionally, the attachés conduct clandestine and overt intelligence collection on respective areas of responsibility. Although the general function of an attaché office is the same worldwide, individual attaché offices probably prioritize specific missions or diplomatic priorities based on location, close bilateral relations, or other factors.
The PRC’s military attaché offices vary in size, generally ranging from two to 1-officers. Most offices are made of two to three officers, although officers in countries considered important to China’s strategic interests often employ more attachés. These offices potentially include multiple assistant attaches, service attaches such as naval or air force, and additional support staff.
MILITARY COOPERATION
As the PRC’s regional and international interests grow increasingly complex, the PLA’s international engagements likely will continue to expand. Beijing often relies on senior military visits, bilateral and multilateral exercises and training, peacekeeping, and military assistance to promote the PRC’s foreign policy objectives.
Senior-level military visits and international exchanges remained limited in 2022 due to continuing COVID-19 restrictions in China. Many engagements were still conducted via remote video, such as the 2nd China-Africa Peace and Security Forum Ministerial and a minister-level meeting with Latin American and Caribbean nations. In 2022, former PRC Defense Minister Wei Fenghe resumed attending some multilateral security meetings in person, including the revived Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus in Cambodia. Wei also traveled to traditional partner nations such as Russia and Iran, and met with his Australian counterpart for the first time in two years. Wei likely undertook these visits to influence foreign approaches to shared security concerns, demonstrate solidarity with long-standing partners, and improve bilateral and multilateral defense relations.
The PLA continued to participate in bilateral and multilateral military exercises in 2022, though fewer than in past years, likely in part due to lingering concerns over COVID-19. The PLA carried out what appears to be a standard annual list of military exercises with the Russian military: the
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
