CCP tasked PLA to develop capability to project power outside China's borders: Pentagon report

The leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have tasked the People's Liberation Army to develop the capability to project power outside the country's borders and immediate periphery to secure Beijing's growing overseas interests and advance its foreign policy goals, Pentagon said in its recent report released on Wednesday.

CCP leaders believe that China's global activities, including the PLA's growing global presence, are necessary to create an international environment conducive to the PRC's "national rejuvenation," Pentagon's 2021 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China.

The report stated that the CCP seeks to create international conditions that are conducive to China's continued development and compatible with its aspirations for the PRC's s rejuvenation as a "great modern socialist country".

CCP leaders believe that the PRC's global activities, including the PLA's growing global presence, contribute to creating a "favorable" international environment for the PRC's national rejuvenation, the report read.

This evolving approach parallels the Party's view that the initial decades of the 21st century represent a "period of strategic opportunity" to focus on building the PRC's composite national power, though they may believe that the period is beginning to close.

The PRC probably will continue to expand the PLA's global military presence through humanitarian assistance, naval escorts and port calls, UN peacekeeping operations (PKO), arms sales, influence operations, and bilateral and multilateral military exercises, the Pentagon said.

Through these engagements, Beijing can strengthen and expand its diplomatic relationships to advance its foreign policy goals, to include shaping the international system to align with the PRC'sinterests and allow the PLA to gain operational experience, according to the report.

( With inputs from ANI )