News Analysis China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been undergoing a profound transformation since at least the turn of the century. In the first place, it has spent years pursuing a “double construction” approach of mechanization and “informationization.” This “two-track” approach called for the near-term modernization of “existing equipment combined with the selective introduction of new generations of conventional weapons,” together with a longer-term transformation of the PLA along the lines of the information technologies-based “revolution in military affairs” (RMA). Officially, the PLA expects to achieve mechanization and make “major progress” toward informationization by the 2020, achieve “complete military modernization” by 2035, and become a “world-class” military by 2049. In keeping with this timetable, the PLA is currently all about “informationization.” Informationization entails using information technologies to conduct joint military operations across the domains of land, sea, air, space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum. It also means exploiting technological advances …