New force for China’s PLA eyes modern warfare information support
The Chinese military has created a new information support unit that analysts say will help boost its gathering and sharing of information to support other units.

The Information Support Force force, which was inaugurated in a ceremony hosted by President Xi Jinping on Friday, has taken over some of the functions of the Strategic Support Force (SSF).

That force, which was established in 2015 to expand the People’s Liberation Army’s cyber, space, electronic and psychological warfare capabilities, was disbanded at the same event.

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Two of the SSF’s units– the military aerospace force and cyberspace force – will remain as independent forces, reporting directly to the Central Military Commission under a new command structure.

The aerospace force will be responsible for “strengthening the capacity to safely enter, exit and openly use space, enhancing crisis management and the efficacy of comprehensive governance in space”, according to Wu Qian, a spokesman for the defence ministry.

The cyberspace force will be tasked with enhancing national cyber defence, detecting and countering network intrusions and maintaining national cyber sovereignty and information security, he added.

The new Information Support Force will be led by Bi Yi, the former deputy commander of the SSF.

The new force will play a “crucial” role and is “a key pillar in coordinating the construction and application of the network information system”, Xi said during Friday’s ceremony.

He ordered the force to “effectively support combat operations ... integrate information resources, strengthen information protection,” and “integrate deeply into the military’s joint operation system and carry out information support in a precise and effective manner”.

He added the new force should strengthen scientific innovation and build a “network information system” that meets the requirements of modern warfare and improves joint operations capabilities.

Last month Xi ordered the PLA to be well-prepared for information-focused warfare.

The new force will “focus on obtaining information and distributing [it] across platforms and forces, and ensuring the other side won’t be able to obtain our information,” Fu Qianshao, a former equipment expert with the PLA, said.

“In the past, different forces had independent data chains and it’s rather hard to integrate them.”

He added that the restructuring would better equip the information division to improve joint-forces operations.

The PLA has a set target of 2027 – the year of its centenary – to achieve its modernisation goals, paving the way for it to become a “world class” military power by 2049.

Ni Lexiong, a professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said the new information support force will strengthen the PLA’s situational awareness, while weakening those of its enemies.

The restructuring is essential because of the “decisive” role information plays in modern warfare, but those functions overlapped among different units in the SSF, he added.

“When a certain military technology is very important to the outcome of a war, the troops in charge of this military technology will be separated from the original military branch and become a new branch of the military,” Ni said.

“Now information, intelligence, and electronic warfare have become decisive, so this is why the information support force became a separate force,” Ni explained.

The new force will work closely with the space and cyber forces, he also added.

The new force is probably the result of China enhancing “the division of labour” between the PLA’s branches, said James Char, a research fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

He said the SSF’s previous functions and the new force’s specialised role, powered by the increasing use of AI, means the PLA will be able to conduct information operations more effectively, Char said said

“The overhaul better reflects the importance the PLA has placed on speeding up the development of intelligentised ... warfare by delegating the task of developing new types of combat forces to a single, standalone entity, and according it pride of place in the military hierarchy by reconstituting it as a new branch,” Char said.

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The new unit will take over the information functions of the now-disbanded Strategic Support ForceNew force is ‘a key pillar in coordinating the construction and application of the network information system’, according to President Xi Jinping