ISBN: 9798724860888

Category: Unavailable

Page count: 472

"First, I want to provide information in a single unclassified source for United States Air Force (USAF) personnel who have the opportunity to engage China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in military diplomacy either in China or in the U.S. and for anyone else who is looking at the PLAAF for multiple reasons. Second, I want to write about the five things I care the most about, which are PLAAF organizational structure, personnel (officer/cadre corps and enlisted force), education, training, and military diplomacy. As can be seen, this book does not address weapons and equipment, which is covered in detail in other sources. Although it is crucial to grasp the military capabilities of the PLAAF embodied by its hardware, it is equally important to understand the six components discussed in this book. Although I have written some material in the past about the PLAAF’s strategy, theory, and “doctrine,” it has not been one of my primary focuses. Therefore, I invited Cristina Garafola to write that chapter and to provide valuable input throughout the entire book. Third, I believe it is important to have not only a snapshot of where the PLAAF is today but to understand how it got there from the beginning in 1949. This, in turn, helps provide a basis for making predictions about what the PLAAF will look like at its 80th birthday in November 2029. Fourth, when one does engage the PLAAF face-to-face or examines it from an analytical perspective, it is important to look at the PLAAF through a PLAAF lens, not through a USAF lens. Specifically, the PLAAF and USAF are not organized the same way and, even though they might use the same terms, the concepts are oftentimes completely different. For example, a USAF flight squadron normally has about 15-25 aircraft, while a PLAAF flight squadron has only five aircraft. And, most importantly, as will be shown in this book, the PLA, like every other Chinese government entity or state-owned enterprise, is organized based on a grade structure, whereby every organization and officer are assigned a grade that defines the PLA’s command and control structure. As such, even though officers wear ranks, ranks are not as important as their grade, which identifies their billet. Therefore, I believe it is important to use the PLAAF terms and concepts and to educate the audience about them. Fifth, although I served as a Chinese linguist and analyst in USAF units as well as serving as an Assistant Air Attaché (A/AIRA) in Beijing, the USAF never provided me with any of the information in this book to help lay the foundation for understanding the PLAAF before I assumed my billet. Even after serving as the A/AIRA and writing my first book in 1991, I would say that, when I retired from the USAF in 1992, that I knew less than 10 percent about the PLAAF than what I know now. My second book, China’s Air Force Enters the 21st Century, was published by RAND in 1995 and laid the foundation for the rest of my career as an analyst of the PLAAF. Sixth, although I was a physical education major in college and got two C minus grades in political science because I didn’t care about politics and history, I ended up receiving a Master’s Degree in International Relations and a second Bachelor’s Degree in Asian Studies with straight A’s, since what I studied was relevant to my job every day. As such, one purpose of this book is to provide material to college students who are studying the PLAAF and to U.S. military personnel who are looking at the PLAAF on a regular basis to help put some of the information about theory, doctrine, and strategy into perspective. Finally, although this book provides historical details and examples of the PLAAF in various areas, not every issue is updated through 2019."--Introduction.