Commentary A new report released by the U.S. Department of Defense summarizes Chinese strategic thinking on active defense, but doesn’t recognize the new geography and communist strategic signature that suggests a preemptive, offensive strategy. The 2021 DoD report on communist China covers a variety of categories and is a good summary that’s worth reading. But part of the analysis remains questionable. While the report is useful, the comments about the Chinese regime’s supposed “active defense” need further explanation. The term active defense unreliably relies on old doctrine from Mao Zedong and the Chinese civil war, ignores the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) record since it took power, and suggests a stark disconnect between the stated and actual current communist strategy. The report claims the “PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] military strategy is based on ‘active defense’ concept that adopts the principles of strategic defense in combination with offensive action at the …