2024 CHINA MILITARY POWER REPORT 1
On December 18, 2024, the Department of Defense publicly released its annual report, Military and Security
Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as the China Military Power
Report (CMPR). This congressionally mandated report charts the current course of the PRC’s national, economic,
and military strategy, and offers insights into the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) strategy, current capabilities,
and activities, as well as its future modernization goals. The CMPR illustrates why the 2022 National Defense
Strategy identified the PRC and its increasingly capable military as the Department’s top pacing challenge.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Expanding PRC National Power to Confront a Strategic Environment that Beijing Views as Increasingly
Turbulent. The PRC aims to accrue national power through political, social, economic, technological, and
military development to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” by 2049. With this power, the
PRC seeks to revise the international order in support of the PRC’s system of governance and national
interests.
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Increasing PRC Military Coercion. Since late 2023, the PLA reduced the number of coercive and risky air
intercepts of U.S. platforms compared to the previous two years, though it continues to conduct unsafe
maneuvers in the vicinity of allied forces operating in the region.
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Developments in PRC Defense Industry. The PRC has the world’s leading hypersonic missile arsenal and has
advanced its development of both conventional and nuclear-armed hypersonic missile technologies over the
past 20 years. Similarly, the PRC is capable of producing a wide range of naval combatants, weapons, and
electronic systems, making it nearly self-sufficient for all shipbuilding needs.
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Intensifying Pressure Against Taiwan.
In 2023, the PRC increased diplomatic, political, and military pressure
against Taiwan. Throughout the year, the PRC continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan
by maintaining a naval presence around Taiwan, increasing crossings into Taiwan’s self-declared centerline
and Air Defense Identification Zone, and conducting highly publicized major military exercises near Taiwan.
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Deepening PRC-Russia Ties. In 2023, the PRC maintained robust support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
It promoted Russian narratives blaming the United States and NATO for the war, buoyed Russia’s economy
against international sanctions, and sold Russia dual use inputs that Russia’s military industries rely on. The
PRC almost certainly is applying lessons from Russia’s war against Ukraine toward its own strategic
objectives and coercive activities.
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Continuing PRC Resistance to Military-to-Military Communications with the United States.
In 2023, the PLA
largely denied, cancelled, and ignored recurring bilateral engagements and DoD requests for communication;
then, in November 2023, President Biden and PRC leader President Xi Jinping agreed that the United States
and the PRC would resume military-to-military communication at all levels. DoD is committed to maintaining
open lines of communication with the PRC to ensure competition does not veer into conflict.
FACT SHEET |
2024 CHINA MILITARY POWER REPORT
