China has undertaken the biggest restructuring of its armed forces in nearly a decade, focusing on a technology-led strategic force equipped for modern warfare as Beijing competes with Washington for military supremacy in a region riven by tensions. geopolitical. In a surprise move last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping disbanded the Strategic Support Forces (SSF), a military branch he established in 2015 to integrate the People's Liberation Army's space, cyber, electronic and psychological warfare capabilities as part of a comprehensive review of the armed forces, writes CNN.

Instead, Xi created the Information Support Force, which he said is an entirely new strategic arm of China's military and a key support for the coordinated development and deployment of a networked information system. "The new force will play an important role in supporting China's military in fighting and winning modern warfare," Xi said at the ceremony last Friday. At a press conference the same day, a spokesman for the Ministry of China's defense said in fact that the SSF was divided into the Information Support Force, the Air Force and the Cyber ​​Force, which would report directly to the Central Military Commission, the body at the top of the military chain of command headed by Xi new, China's armed forces now consist of four services — the army, navy, air force and missile force — plus four branches: three units that are split from the SSF and the Joint Logistics Support Force, according to ministry spokesman Wu Qian.

Chinese military experts say the reshuffle strengthens Xi's direct control over the armed forces' strategic capabilities and underscores China's ambitions to better master artificial intelligence and other new technologies to prepare for what it calls "smart war " of the future. The restructuring follows Xi's sweeping corruption purge of China's military last year, which snared powerful generals and shook up the missile force, the elite branch that oversees China's growing arsenal of nuclear and ballistic missiles. The intelligence support force will be led by senior generals from the former SSF.

SSF deputy commander Bi Yi has been appointed commander of the new unit, while Li Wei, political commissar of the SSF, will take on the same role in the Information Support Force. Senior observers of the Chinese military say the recent reorganization is likely not the result of recent corruption purges, but a reflection that the SSF was not the ideal organizational format for the Chinese military. "This shows that the SSF was not a satisfactory arrangement. It reduced Xi's oversight of important functions and did not improve coordination between space, cyber and network defense forces," said Joel Wuthnow, a senior researcher at the National Defense University-funded from the Pentagon.

Before the disbandment, the SSF had two main units - the Space Systems Division, which oversaw operations and reconnaissance in space, and the Network Systems Division, responsible for cyber, electronic and psychological warfare.

"I think the new structure will give Xi more insight into what's going on in space, cyberspace and network management. These functions will now be overseen at his level, rather than through the Strategic Support Force , which served as an intermediary," Wuthnow said. The lack of such visibility could carry high risks, especially at a time of heightened tensions and deep mistrust between Beijing and Washington. Last year, the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon after it flew over the continental United States. The incident sparked a new crisis between the two powers and plunged bilateral relations into a deep freeze for several months. Although US intelligence officials said the balloon was part of a broader surveillance program run by the Chinese military, Xi may not have been aware of the mission. US President Joe Biden said last June that the Chinese leader did not know about the balloon and was "very embarrassed" when it crashed after going off course and entering US airspace.

James Char, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said conducting strategic reconnaissance during the spy balloon incident would be the remit of the SSF's Air Space Systems Division. It is not clear whether the balloon incident contributed to Xi's decision to disband the SSF. Wuthnow says the newly created Information Support Force will likely take over communications and network protection for the Chinese military. "Getting these things right is very important in any future conflict. The Chinese have observed these functions and perhaps learned lessons for your organization from the war in Ukraine. So it makes sense that the chairman of the Central Military Commission wants to play a more active role directly in that field".

The latest shake-up is likely the result of an analysis of how the military can better meet the ruling Chinese Communist Party's strategic goals, according to Char. "I think the realignment better reflects the importance the Chinese military has placed on accelerating the development of intelligent warfare brought about by a new round of technological and industrial advances." The concept of "smart war" drew attention in a 2019 Chinese defense white paper, which highlighted military applications of cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, big data sets and cloud computing.

"The international military competition is undergoing historic changes. New and modern military technologies with information technology as the core are advancing every day, and there is a prevailing trend of developing high-precision, intelligent, invisible or unmanned weapons and equipment. War is accelerating its evolution in the form of information warfare and intelligent warfare is on the horizon," the white paper says. The creation of the Information Support Force as a new branch directly under the Central Military Commission also underscores the importance of information dominance in modern warfare. A commentary in the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military, described networked information technology as the "biggest changer" in improving combat capabilities: "Modern warfare is a race between systems and structures, where control of information equals controlling the initiative in war".

The emphasis on information dominance and "smart warfare" also has important implications for any potential future conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan part of its territory, despite never having controlled it in the past, and has vowed to take control of the island — by force if necessary. Char said that in the event of a conflict in Taiwan, the Information Support Force "is likely to take the role of a blade in the Chinese military's effort to dominate the information space before Beijing's adversaries can."