China’s Dream: Major Power Thinking and Strategic Posture in a Post-American Era has attracted considerable attention from both Chinese and Western media [1]. The author, Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu, calls for China to replace the United States as the dominant military power.
Liu is a professor at People’s Liberation Army (PLA) National Defense University and former director of the university’s Army Building Research Institute, which researches and teaches about modernization and force development issues. He enlisted in 1969 and spent the first 20 years working in political affairs in the Jinan military region before moving to NDU. (A PLA colleague noted that Liu is a political officer, not a strategic researcher, and that he has never visited the United States).
Liu’s recent writings focus on promoting Hu Jintao’s “New Historic Missions” (xin de lishi shiming) for the PLA, which include helping ensure China’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and domestic security in order to continue national development and safeguarding China’s expanding national interests. References to the “New Historic Missions” can be viewed as arguments for expanding PLA capabilities and budgets for missions beyond Taiwan. China’s Dream is written for a popular audience and published by a commercial press rather than by the military. It does not represent the official views of the Chinese government or the PLA, but should be read as one voice (and a fairly extreme voice) in an ongoing debate about China’s strategic and military posture.
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