Recent Publications - Tag Joshua Arostegui

The New Reserve Personnel ID Card: How the PLA is Streamlining Mobilization and Improving the Status of Military Reservists in Chinese Society
March 16, 2026 — Joshua Arostegui... MORE

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Can the 15th Five-Year Plan Fix the People’s Liberation Army’s Procurement Bottlenecks?
January 14, 2026 — China’s newly released 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) proposal, unveiled after the Fourth Party Plenum in October 2025, not only marks Beijing’s quest to achieve the People’s Liberation Army’s goal of building a so-called world-class military by 2049. As the last major planning cycle before the 2035 benchmark for “basically achieving full modernization,” the plan also reaffirms General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core priorities: operational efficiency, technological self-reliance, and the Chinese Communist Party’s absolute command... MORE

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The 2024 Carlisle Conference on the PLA: Protracted War Against the PRC
January 12, 2026 — The US Army War College’s 2024 Carlisle Conference on the People’s Liberation Army was held on October 16 and 17 at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The conference brought together experts to discuss the People’s Republic of China’s understanding of and capability to carry out a protracted war in the Indo-Pacific, with this volume comprising papers authored by panelists... MORE

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The PLA’s Progress toward World-Class Ground Force Capabilities
October 27, 2025 — This essay examines Xi Jinping’s dictum of creating a world-class military by 2049 and assesses the progress of the PLA ground forces toward achieving that notional benchmark... MORE

Adapting to Future Wars: The Reorganization of the PLA Army’s Special Operations Forces and the Move toward Professionalization
September 26, 2025 — The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) implemented major changes to the organization, accession, and training of its army’s special operations forces (SOF) beginning in 2017, including the creation of a 12-man SOF team and establishment of a probable national-level army-subordinate counterterrorism unit. Beginning in 2025, the PLA introduced several changes to improve officer accession and noncommissioned officer retention in its special operations community. This article assesses observed changes since 2017 designed to improve the PLA’s command and control of its army’s SOF units and to set the foundation for China’s elite forces becoming world-class by 2049... MORE

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China’s September 2025 Military Parade: How PLA Ground Forces Are Adapting to Future Wars and Force Projection
September 5, 2025 — China’s military parades are often viewed as a form of deterrence by giving Xi Jinping an opportunity to showcase the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) advanced weapons systems to the world and bring like-minded authoritarian leaders from partner states together in a show of unity against the Western-led international liberal order. The extravagant events, however, also open a window into understanding Beijing’s expectation of how and where it will fight in the future. Despite the unveiling of several new weapons driven through Tiananmen Square during the 70-minute parade, most of them, like the YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile and LY-1 shipborne laser air defense system, were designed to deter and defeat the United States and its allies in the air and maritime domains of the Indo-Pacific region. Yet, the first formations of vehicles to cross in front of Xi and his guests, those belonging to the PLA Army (PLAA), PLA Air Force Airborne Corps (PLAAFAC), and PLA Navy Marine Corps (PLANMC), represented something different: an acknowledgement that future wars will be global and force projection needs to be accompanied by land-based firepower and protection... MORE

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More Than a Numbers Game: Comparing US and Chinese Landpower in the Pacific Requires Context
September 3, 2025 — This episode features the authors of the recently published monograph More Than a Numbers Game: Comparing US and Chinese Landpower in the Pacific Requires Context... MORE

Cover for CLSC Dialogues – Ep 23 – Joshua Arostegui, Brennan Deveraux, and Rick Gunnell – More Than a Numbers Game: Comparing US and Chinese Landpower in the Pacific Requires Context

More Than a Numbers Game: Comparing US and Chinese Landpower in the Pacific Requires Context
July 22, 2025 — As the US Army organizes, trains, and equips for an unforeseen future, service decisions should create or amplify relative operational advantages over the US military’s rising foe—the People’s Liberation Army. Discerning critical differences between American and Chinese land forces is a prerequisite for such efforts... MORE

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2024 Carlisle Conference on the PLA
January 31, 2025 — The China Landpower Studies Center (CLSC) held the Carlisle Conference on the PLA at the US Army War College’s (USAWC) Army Heritage and Education Center on 16 and 17 October 2024. This year’s conference, a keystone annual event held by the USAWC Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), marked the newly-established CLSC team’s first time in the driver’s... MORE

China’s Next Step in Modernizing the People’s Liberation Army: A New Reserve Service System
December 5, 2024 — The Chinese Communist Party’s massive active-duty army—the largest in the world—understates the manpower available to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during a future protracted war. Despite the hundreds of thousands of combat troops garrisoned around the country, a prolonged war of attrition will require more than movement of forces from one side of the country to another... MORE

China’s Next Step in Modernizing the People’s Liberation Army: A New Reserve Service System | Joshua M. Arostegui

“A Baseline Assessment of the PLA Army's Border Reinforcement Operations in the Aksai Chin”
September 24, 2024 — In episode 18 of CLSC Dialogues, Josh Arostegui interviews prominent China expert Dennis Blasko on his analysis of PLA Army and Boader Defense Unit activity along the Line of Actual Control between China and India. He describes the development of infrastructure that allows the PLA to maintain a more robust forward presence. He further describes... MORE

CLSC Dialogues Ep 18 – Josh Arostegui and Dennis Blasko – “A Baseline Assessment of the PLA Army's Border Reinforcement Operations in the Aksai Chin”

Decisive Decade: PRC Global Strategy and the PLA as a Pacing Challenge – 2023 PLA Conference – Updated and Expanded
April 17, 2024 — The US Army War College’s 2023 Conference on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was held February 22 to 24, 2023, at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The conference, entitled “Decisive Decade: PRC Global Strategy and the PLA as Pacing Challenge,” featured presentations on PRC global and regional strategy, and the PLA’s enabling role by experts from a wide range of academic, media, and government agencies and organizations... MORE