Xi Jinping said that the ISF must be absolutely loyal to the Party, must focus on its core task of using information assets to support combat operations, must maintain information flow, integrate information resources, protect information security and must fit in the military’s joint operations system.
On 19 April 2024, People Liberation Army’s Strategic Support Force (PLASSF) under the General Staff Department that was responsible for intelligence collection, psychological warfare, information warfare, space warfare, cyberwarfare, and electronic warfare operations was dissolved and replaced with a new arm—the Information Support Force (ISF) alongside the Aerospace Force (ASF), the Cyberspace Force (CSF), and the Joint Logistic Support Force (JLSF), under direct command of the Central Military Commission (CMC). In the words of Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defence, with this round of reform, the PLA now features a new system of services including the army, the navy, the air force and the rocket force besides the above four arms. The PLASSF was created by Xi Jinping for dealing with the informatized conflicts in December 2015.
Xi Jinping conferred the new force’s flag to its commander Lieutenant General Bi Yi (毕毅) and political commissar of the unit General Li Wei (李伟) at the force’s establishment ceremony inside the CMC headquarters in Beijing. During his speech, Xi flagged out the significance (意义), position (地位), responsibilities (责任) of the PLAISF, as well what is required (要求) from the newly established PLA arm. In the words of Xi Jinping, the establishment of the ISF has “profound and far-reaching significance to the modernization of national defence and the armed forces and to the military’s fulfilment of its missions and tasks in the new era… it is a key pillar of the integrated development and use of the network information system. It plays an important role and bears great responsibility in promoting the PLA’s high-quality development and the ability to fight and win modern warfare.” As regards the requirements, Xi said, the force must be absolutely loyal to the Party, must focus on its core task of using information assets to support combat operations, must maintain information flow, integrate information resources, protect information security and must fit in the military’s joint operations system.
The ISF has a leadership team of 10 people, including its commander, political commissar, two deputy commanders, deputy political commissar, chief of staff, and directors of the political, logistics, equipment, and disciplinary inspection. The four arms of the PLA differ from the four services in a way that services are at the five theatre commands levels, whereas the arms are at sub theatre command level. For example, Eastern Theatre Command would have jurisdiction over the theatre army and theatre navy, while the arms are directly under the CMC of the Central Committee of the CPC without any theatre arm.
Moreover, the arms would operate both during peace and war times. Though the functions of the above arms have been identified as using information assets to support combat operations, building capacities to safely enter, exit and openly use space, and reinforcing national cyber border defence etc., which anyhow were previously carried out by the PLASSF, however, the question remains, what lies behind such a such a shake-up.
First, as the network information technology has become the biggest variable in improving the combat effectiveness of armed forces, the decision to disband the PLASSF as the fifth service owing to its complex hierarchical structure where compartmentalized departments operated independently devoid of gaining “new combat capabilities” led to establishment of the Information Support Force, as well as the separation of PLASSF’s Network Systems Department that was composed of “Cyber Army” and “Space Army” have been reorganized into the aerospace and cyber forces as mentioned above and are organizationally parallel to the ISF.
Second, Xi Jinping has further consolidated his power, as all the new arms would now directly report to the Chairman of the CMC, unlike previously, when various organs of the PLASSF reported to its Commander first, and then to the CMC. Li Wei, the newly appointed political commissar of the ISF, spoke on behalf of the arm on 19 April and said, “We will resolutely obey the commands of the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission and Chairman Xi.” The ISF has been required to unify its thoughts and actions to Chairman Xi’s decision-making instructions and resolutely obey the party’s command and ensure that the troops are absolutely loyal (绝对忠诚), absolutely pure (绝对纯洁), and absolutely reliable (绝对可靠).
Third, reorganization could also be deemed as part of purges of the military tigers within the PLA. The General Staff Department of the PLASSF was under Admiral Li Shangfu, its former Chief of Staff, later promoted as the Defence Minister and Member of the CMC and has been investigated for corruption in 2023 and removed from his posts in early 2024.
Two former deputies of Li, Zhang Zhenzhong and Liu Guangbin, have also been investigated. Nine of the Rocket Force commanders were also stripped of their membership in the legislature in 2023. It could be surmised that after the Rocket Force, and PLA’s Equipment Department, the purge of the PLASSF is going on. The reorganisation of the PLASSF, therefore, is indicative of a greater purge with in the PLA.
Finally, the reorganisation is also geared towards “prepare to fight war” (备战打仗), reinforce mission responsibilities, achieve the centenary goal of the founding of the PLA in 2027, and ultimately provide strategic support to the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization.
B.R. Deepak is Professor, Center of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.