NEW DELHI: Regardless of whether the video of a ‘War Preparedness Mobilisation Exercise’ convened by the Guangdong Province Communist Party Committee on May 14, 2022 was deliberately ‘leaked’ as part of psywar, or was an unauthorised recording of the meeting by a disgruntled People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer, it reveals some interesting details. It will undoubtedly be carefully analysed by China’s neighbours and competitors to better discern war indicators. China’s neighbours with outstanding territorial issues will analyse the video as the planning sequence and essential elements will generally be replicated in all provinces directly involved in military operations.
The hour-long video reveals details of China’s war planning, roles of the PLA Military Commander and Political Commissar, roles and responsibilities of the Central and provincial CCP organisations and details of defence-related assets in Guangdong Province and the Region. It specifies the pre-eminent authority of the Provincial Party Secretary. The Party Secretary is designated the General Commander of the provincial military-civilian joint command while the Governor, Provincial Military Region Commander and Political Commissar are commanders. The Governor is responsible for implementing the mobilization while the provincial military district commander is responsible for ‘commanding the action’ before commencement of the war.
Priority in the preparations was given to morale and ideological awareness of troops. This was described as necessary to “unify” ideological understanding and the key to winning. While doing this the leadership exhorted the meeting to unify thought and action in compliance with the decision of the Party Central Committee and Central Military Commission.
Civil-Military coordination was next on the agenda with the Provincial leadership stressing the need to “quickly set up a joint military-civilian command party committee”. It called for a high degree of attention to self-defence, and focus on the “Pearl River Delta super-dense cities”, important military and livelihood targets in the region, good coordination for air defence of military targets and for protecting people’s lives and properties. Specific responsibilities were assigned to the available forces. Defence targets, the War Zone’s joint warfare command center, maritime operations sub-center, Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, South China Power Grid and other important civilian targets were identified for special protection. Resources for radiation environmental monitoring, nuclear, biological, and chemical support, and biochemical medical testing were marshalled.
PLA Major General Zhou He, Commander of the Guangdong Military Region and Major General Wang Shouxin, Political Commissar of the Guangdong Military Region, endorsed these decisions. They added: (i) provincial industry must obey the unified command of the joint command; (ii) military-civilian departments at all levels should accomplish their duties and ensure coordination; (ii) the needs of the troops to support front-line operations must be fully ensured; (iii) lives of the masses and stability of the rear [of the battlefield] must be ensured; (iii) mobilization of the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea must be simultaneously coordinated; (iv) all resources in the Taiwan Strait area need to be pooled; (v) since there are a large number of migrant workers and a large number of factories and enterprises, precautions require to be taken to prevent a run on banks, evacuations by factories, and exodus of migrant workers wanting to go home; (vi) roads and targets must be well protected; (vii) because of China’s proximity to Hong Kong and Macao and the long coastline, it is essential to prevent infiltration and sabotage by the enemy; and (viii) Hong Kong must not be used as a base by the enemy to create chaos to disrupt the war.
A lot of importance was given to communications and usage of both, military and civilian links, was underscored. Measures included setting up an information data security and information room, a battalion-level information and communication force in the province, and company and platoon-level forces in municipalities and counties respectively. Four communications links were identified: (i) Military Commission Joint Command Center to the War Zone Joint Command Center, and lower to the military joint command centers using a ‘confidential information remote delivery system’ to be integrated into the joint command system; (ii) CMC Mobilization Department to the provincial military district leadership, mainly relying on the 509+ platform and the national defence mobilization task information command system; (iii) command communication links from the provincial, city, and county level military-civilian joint commands to the task teams. These will rely mainly on ultra-short wave, Tiantong-1 satellite phones to establish mobile communications; and (iv) command and communication links from the army to the civilians, relying on the ‘integrated confidential password system’ on the ‘Acer government intranet’.
The video revealed the resources available to the Guangdong region. Included were: 1,358 detachments of various types with a total of 140,000 personnel, 953 ships of various types, and 1,653 units/sets of various unmanned equipment; 20 airports and docks; 6 repair and shipbuilding yards, 14 emergency transfer centers, and grain depots, hospitals, blood stations, etc. It said 15,500 new military service personnel, retired military personnel, and ‘special talents’ would be recruited in Guangdong province. The National Defence Commission is to coordinate national level warfare resources.
As the exercise related to Taiwan operations, maritime operations were discussed. It revealed that ‘New-style’ ocean-going forces will conduct reconnaissance, submarine search etc. outside the first island chain, protect the forward deployed rocket forces and provide support to the troops. Militia fishing boats would be organised to fight “the people’s war” at sea and respond to infringements by Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and other countries. Strategic decision-making roles were assigned to seven cities while six major cities in the Pearl River Delta and the 74th Army Group are to support strategic decision-making.
It disclosed that Guangdong has 90 enterprises capable of retrofitting 365 ships within 45 days. These high-quality shipbuilding and retrofitting resources are concentrated in Guangzhou, Yangjiang, Dongguan, and other places. It also discussed measures to boost the production of drones.
‘Network attack and control systems’ are to be deployed in this preparatory phase and, confirming the close ties between the PLA and China’s IT and Technology companies, it proposed mobilising Qianxin, Huawei, Tencent, and other hi-tech enterprises.
The meeting decided to tap enterprises in Shenzhen to supplement the present reliance on satellite and space systems. It said the Region has four satellite detachments and 16 low- orbit satellites with 0.5 to 10 meters global remote ultra-high optical resolution sensing and imaging capabilities. The use of nuclear and chemical rescue forces was discussed.
For India specifically, the provinces in the Western Theatre Command that will be mobilised are: Tibet (Xizang), Sichuan, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. Sichuan particularly has a concentration of defence manufacturers, including aircraft and drone companies. Lanzhou, Lhasa and Chengdu will be the mobilisation headquarters. Chengdu is, in any event, the Headquarters of the Joint Operations Command to be set up in times of war or crisis. In the actual preparatory phase posters for recruits and guidance for civilians will appear in these areas. The advances in telecommunications, including quantum, could make Chinese traffic analysis very difficult, but the preparatory phase will see increased activity.
The video gives an idea of the resources each Theatre Command/War Zone can call upon. The War Time Preparedness Exercise does indicate that the PLA is preparing for such an eventuality.
The author is former Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India and is presently President of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy.
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