I. Outline for Non-Military Operations for the Armed Forces (For Trial Implementation) |军队非战争军事行动纲要（试行）| jūnduì fēi zhànzhēng jūnshìxíngdòng gāngyào (shì xíng)|
In November 2020, PLA watchers and analysts discovered that the Central Military Commission (CMC) issued a new operational doctrine (trail) for joint operations for the Chinese armed forces. It was only the fifth time that the PLA had changed its operational doctrine since 1949. (Dr Joel Wuthnow and Prof M Taylor Fravel’s recent article for the Journal of Strategic Studies explain these changes in great detail. For details about the changes in the past, you could read Prof Fravel’s book, Active Defense, also this Fairbank centre discussion will be helpful). Similar to the change in November 2020, the CMC has now signed what appears to be a new “Outline for Non-Military Operations for the Armed Forces” (Trial basis). For the PLA, non-military operations include operations other than fighting but are not restricted to disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, counter-piracy etc. For now, we know that the outline contains six chapters and 59 articles, covering the basic principles, organisation and command, types of operations, support and political work. The Xinhua report claims that the outline “systematically regulates basic principles, organization and command, types of operations, operational support, and political work, and implements them for the troops to give non-war military operations a legal basis.”
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