K. Tristan Tang
©2026 K. Tristan Tang
CLSC Quick Takes offer expert analysis of select sources and provide timely insight in a succinct format rather than as formally cited academic products.
Discovery
The January 30, 2026, edition of Liberation Army Daily [解放军报] carried a front-page article titled “The Southern Theater Command (STC) Advances Deep Integration of Combat and Training: Cross-Regional and Cross-Unit Joint Training Becomes Routine.” The content indicates the STC has recently institutionalized joint training to explore joint operations maneuvers and identify operational challenges. The article states that the STC uses combat to lead training to deepen the integration of combat and training. It emphasizes case-based training organization and system-level joint training, and it steadily advances specialized training on representative joint task groupings.
Notably, the article states that the STC directs combat and training requirements, training content planning, evaluation standard measurement, and training task execution to follow a unified approach. In addition, the STC closely tracks weaknesses and gaps in system-level operational capabilities. It establishes lists of training problems, corrective actions, and assigned responsibilities to drive sustained improvements in training effectiveness and quality. At the same time, the STC routinely organizes joint training, strengthens practical innovation in command operations, clarifies vertical and horizontal command relationships, and ensures the steady operation of a joint-centered training mechanism.
Analysis
These joint training outcomes form part of the military training reform that Xi Jinping announced in November 2020, which aimed to advance training reform and develop a joint training system. According to PLA planning, the reform sequence moves from basic training to combined training and then to joint training.
In June 2023 and October 2024, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) convened on-site conferences for basic training and combined training, respectively, and announced that it had completed the exploratory phase and established new training models for these areas. This development does not mean that the training reforms have concluded. It means the PLA can now promote training reform based on these newly established models. The PLA, however, has not yet convened an on-site conference for joint training, which indicates that the exploration of a new joint training model remains incomplete.
Implications
Liberation Army Daily serves as the PLA’s most authoritative internal information source, and one of its core functions is to highlight exemplary practices by PLA units for emulation across the force. The January 30, 2026, report suggests that the PLA’s joint training reform remains in an exploratory phase and has only recently begun routine exploration.
As the article notes, even the STC—which the PLA currently presents as the most model-worthy organization among the theater commands in joint training—has only begun exploring the standardization of joint operational requirements, training plans, and evaluation standards.
Strategic Message
Although the PLA has conducted multiple large-scale exercises around Taiwan since 2022 and dozens of joint combat readiness patrols each year, the PLA internally still assesses that joint operations have not reached the desired state. In other words, the PLA has not yet completed reforms to existing joint operations training that it considers potentially problematic.
At the same time, the unit highlighted in this report is the STC, not the Eastern Theater Command, which holds primary responsibility for Taiwan-related operations and exercises. This distinction indicates that the PLA’s preparations for operations against Taiwan still have substantial room for improvement, and that existing patterns of military activity against Taiwan may not represent their final form.
Analysis Source: “南部战区推动战训深度耦合 跨地域跨单位联合训练成常态” [The Southern Theater Command (STC) Advances Deep Integration of Combat and Training: Cross-Regional and Cross-Unit Joint Training Becomes Routine], 解放军报 [Liberation Army Daily], January 30, 2026, http://www.81.cn/szb_223187/szbxq/index.html?paperName=jfjb&paperDate=2026-01-30&paperNumber=01&articleid=972074.
Keywords: PLA, joint operations, PLA modernization, PLA training reform
K. Tristan Tang
K. Tristan Tang is a 2026 nonresident Lloyd and Lilian Vasey Fellow at the Pacific Forum and a cofounder of the Taiwan Defense Studies Initiative, where he serves as the project lead for wargaming.
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