Currently a lot is being made on online message boards of reports coming from Chinese media outlining new orders for 2013 which apply to all branches of the People’s Liberation Army. Some Japanese media outlets have been interpreting these orders as “prepare for war… presumably against Japan.”
According to the Chinese military’s news source, PLA Daily documents dated 14 January lay out the goals for this year. These goals include “making firm preparations for war” and “increase the strictness and difficulty of all troops’ training to match combat conditions.”
Although these quotes might sound alarming, they are pretty much identical to the goals laid out last year. In fact they are probably similar to the goals of any military organization anywhere. However, new to the policy this year was an emphasis on coordinating military information between troops as the central goal.
Japan is not mentioned anywhere in connection to these goals. Nevertheless, many would argue that Japan is number one on China’s sh*t-list. This belief has been attributed to tendencies in Chinese media surrounding the ongoing Senkaku Islands dispute.
To be clear, China and Japan are having a diplomatic row over the ownership of the Senkaku islands yet, neither the Chinese or the Japanese governments have allowed this to escalate
beyond a territorial disput. Its quite the leap of imagine to conclude that a single sentence contained within a Chinese national defense document somehow leads to the conclusion that war is coming to East Asia over a group of islands no bigger than a couple of football pitches.
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