China’s Latest White Paper is on National Security in the New Era

Last week even as India’s attention was focused on its standoff with Pakistan, China's State Council issued the country's first white paper on “China’s National Security in the New Era.” As of now the white paper is not available in English and so this analysis is based on a rough machine translation and reports from the Chinese media.

According to the white paper, which may actually be a prelude to the issuance of formal national security strategy, China's national security situation has maintained stable and steady progress despite facing a complex landscape of external turbulence. China’s goal, the paper says, is to work with Asia Pacific nations to promote peace, development and stability.

The white paper, apart from its preface and conclusion, is structured into six sections, and outlines the following: China injecting certainty and stability into the world of change and disorder; the holistic approach to national security guiding national security efforts in the new era; providing solid support for the steady and continued progress of Chinese modernisation; reinforcing security in development and pursuing development in security; implementing the Global Security Initiative and promoting the common security of the world; and advancing the modernisation of the national security system and capacity through deepening reforms.

So far the Chinese have offered the world a series of White Papers on Defence. The first of those were issued in 1995 and the last one in 2019. The 2019 edition was entitled “China’s National Defense in the New Era” led off from the view often articulated by Xi Jinping that the world was “undergoing changes unseen in a century.” It saw globalisation, information technology and cultural diversity as the basis of the emergence of a multi-polar world where Beijing was pursuing a policy of “win-win cooperation.” But destabilising factors were around and the “world is not yet a tranquil place.”

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All this of course came even as the Trump tariff war on China was morphing into an anti-Chinese technology denial regime and the world stood on the brink of an unexpected COVID-19 pandemic. The freedoms of Hong Kong were extinguished and tensions relating to Taiwan on a high. In 2020, China made its military moves in eastern Ladakh and in 2022, the world was confronted by an open war in Europe when Russia invaded Ukraine.

The context of the new national security white paper is the arrival of the second Trump Administration which has redoubled its efforts on the tariff front and have effectively undermined globalisation. The Russia-Ukraine war continues unabated as does the one in Gaza. China’s economy is facing considerable turbulence and efforts towards reform continue to be stymied. Meanwhile the process of repairing its relations with India have moved apace and it is in the process of negotiating a new relationship with the US.

National security has been an important leitmotif of the Xi Jinping era. As part of this Beijing has authored deep reform in its military system to create theatre commands and modernise the forces. It has cracked down on corruption in the higher echelons of the military command structure and pushed the notion of civil-military fusion to enhance the capabilities of the PLA.

It was in April 2014 that Xi Jinping first articulated the proposal for a holistic approach to national security. This was seen as the first major attempt by China to deal with the subject of national security as a whole. Over the years as it took shape, it is apparent that strengthening the CPC’s centralised and unified leadership over national security issues was its key goal.

In 2015 China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC) passed a national security law which defined China’s core interests which are “the political regime, the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the nation; and people’s livelihoods, sustainable economic developments….” Article 23 of the law said that the state should develop an advanced socialist culture, practice socialist core values, resist harmful culture and maintain its cultural dominance. Recall that it was the imposition of the national security law in Hong Kong that marked the beginning and end of freedoms in the city.

Earlier the Chinese had also created a National Security Commission in 2013, based on earlier bodies that were doing its work. According to observers this is a secretive body composed currently of Xi Jinping, Li Qiang the Prime Minister, Zhao Leji, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, and Cai Qi, the secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party. This is effectively the topmost echelon of the CPC leadership.

An interesting section of the new national security white paper is the elaboration of the national security system and its mechanisms. The paper sees the task of modernising its national security system as being a part of its overall modernisation drive. The paper notes that the Central National Security Commission is “a centralised, unified, efficient and authoritative national security leadership system”. Its working has been made effective through the national security Law. Currently national security strategies and policies have been formulated in different areas. For example this has been done in relation to “risk prevention and emergency response and the setting up of a risk monitoring and early warning system in different areas. According to the national security document, “the layout of national security forces has been adjusted” and security capability strengthened. But no integrated strategy exists and as we noted this national security paper could be the fore-runner of a formal "national security strategy”.

The tasks ahead have been articulated as the need to adhere to the unified party leadership in national security work, improve the legal system for national security, improve the national security strategy and policy system, improve national risk monitoring and early warning and improve the national emergency management system.

The overall perspective of the publication is that China’s policies are injecting “certainty and stability into a turbulent world.” Indeed, the Asia-Pacific region faces severe challenges in maintaining stability. In line with this, Chinese policies are aimed at coping with the situation as well as promoting stability and resiliency regionally and globally.

In many ways it is a repackaging of older ideas. And China is not really a stabilising force in the Asia Pacific as India, Taiwan, and many of its maritime neighbours realise. In many ways that white paper can be seen as justification for Chinese actions and an attempt to promote Chinese exceptionalism.

But despite its posture of strategic confidence it does betray some concerns over regime security. But its bottom line is that today through its economic achievements, scientific and technical achievements and defence reforms, it is better positioned to cope with national security threats and shape its external security environment.

Manoj Joshi is a distinguished fellow with the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi.

This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.

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