By Kenneth W. Allen and Brian Lafferty
Ken Allen, Senior Warrior China Military Analyst
Allen is a Former Air Force Officer and Assistant Air Attache to US Embassy in Beijing, China
What the PLA Air Force Says About Itself
When examining China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF / 人民解放军空军), it is important to see what the PLAAF is saying to the international community about itself.
How does it present itself in terms of its capabilities and missions, and what does it choose to signal about its intentions? One of the PLAAF’s key channels for conveying its messages to an international audience is the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) China Military Online website. It is the only official English language military news website of the Chinese Armed Forces, and describes itself as “an important platform for building up the online international communication capacity of the Chinese military.”
China Military Online provides news stories and photos about the PLAAF in its own section of the website, with content currently going back to 2018.3 These are the stories that the Chinese air force wants to share with the international community about who it is and what it does.4 This report offers a close examination of what the Chinese air force has been saying to the international community, describing the content of the 169 articles about the PLAAF that were published between January 2018 and August 2023 on the China Military Online website.5 While most reports on the PLAAF rely on multiple sources and tend to focus on a single topic, such as policy, strategy, or training during a certain period, this report focuses on a single source and what it is communicating.
Chinese Media Articles
The PLAAF articles that appear on China Military Online are both original to the site and adapted content that originally appeared in other Chinese media, such as Xinhuanet, Global Times (which is part of People’s Daily), and China Daily. Although some of these sources are not military organizations, the reporters and editor for each article on China Military Online are military officers. In describing this content, this report does not reproduce each of the 169 articles verbatim. Rather, it summarizes the article content, organized around nine main sections devoted to PLAAF capabilities, issues, and missions, as identified below.
Where appropriate, the report uses direct quotes from the articles to emphasize certain claims or points being made within the articles. Otherwise, the China Military Online articles are summarized by the report authors, while remaining faithful to the article subject matter and how the information was presented. Thus, all direct quotes from the articles are identified by quotation marks and a citation. Summaries of articles also have proper citation, but the information is not in quotation marks. Finally, to clarify or elaborate on certain points of information from the articles, the authors of this report on rare occasion interject some brief analysis into the report. This information is in footnotes or italicized, so that it is obvious that the information was not part of the China Military Online articles.
Key Findings
Key Findings The following 13 bullets provide the key findings about the content of articles concerning the PLAAF from China Military Online: 1. The PLAAF has clearly stated that it has set a goal to become a world-class air force by the mid-21st century, and it has laid out the three steps to accomplish it.
2. The five aircraft that received the most attention are the J-20 (35 articles), H-6 (32 articles), Y-20 (31 articles), J-10 (25 articles), and J-16 (18 articles).
3. The PLAAF has assigned operational aircraft, including J-10s, J-11s, and H-6s, to the relevant flight academies so that new pilots who arrive at their operational unit will need less time to transition into their operational aircraft.
4. The PLAAF is gradually increasing the role of female pilots, including becoming flight instructors in flight academies.
5. The PLAAF is rapidly increasing the use of its Y-20 transport aircraft, including the YY-20 aerial tanker variant.
6. The PLAAF is actively involved in domestic and international military operations other than war (MOOTW).
7. The PLAAF has used various events, including the Zhuhai Airshow and Changchun Airshow, to introduce new weapons to the public for the first time and to show certain aircraft during flyovers and on ground displays. 3
8. The PLAAF is actively involved in single-service, multi-service, and international exercises.
9. PLAAF fighters and bombers are increasing their over-water flights, including into the Western Pacific and South China Sea.
10. Starting in 2019, PLAAF H-6K bombers and Russian Air Force (RAF) Tu-95 bombers began conducting joint strategic patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
11. The PLAAF is gradually including unmanned aerial vehicles into its inventory and training.
12. Flight activity occurred on all seven days of the week, while weekend flight activity primarily included transport aircraft flights and airshows.
13. The PLAAF frequently provides information about the first time it does something, including commissioning new aircraft and conducting missions with new aircraft.
*This Study is also published by the Center for Intelligence Research & Analysis
Ken Allen, Senior Warrior China Military Analyst
Allen is a Former Air Force Officer and Assistant Air Attache to US Embassy in Beijing, China
