The military hierarchy in Beijing has traditionally been centralized under the leadership of the Communist Party, which prioritizes political loyalty and strict oversight of high commands. A recent report from the RAND Corporation, a research center based in California, pointed out that some researchers from the PLA have begun to advocate for a mission-type command model similar to that of the United States, which would delegate limited decision-making authority to lower-ranking officers to improve response times in rapidly evolving conflicts. “The adoption of mission-type command by the PLA could worsen its behavior in crisis situations due to less coordination and control of frontline forces by high commands,” wrote the authors of the RAND report. Multiple critical points in the region have the potential to drag the United States and China into a conflict. One scenario is a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a territory claimed by Beijing. New high-definition satellite images show steady progress on a vast tract of land on the outskirts of Beijing that, according to analysts, could be a military command complex designed to protect Chinese leaders from a U.S. nuclear attack. The vast tract, dubbed the 'Beijing Military City' by open-source analysts, is located approximately 32 kilometers southwest of the Chinese capital. Its scale suggests a complex nearly ten times the size of the Pentagon. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to become a 'world-class' force by mid-century, a phrase widely interpreted as shorthand for matching or exceeding U.S. military capabilities. While Beijing has accelerated its development of warships, long-range missiles, and nuclear warheads, experts say Xi also seeks reinforced infrastructure capable of withstanding a devastating attack. Such a facility would allow the Chinese leadership to continue military operations in the event of a major war with the United States. Newsweek contacted China's Ministry of Defense by email for comment. A time-lapse video, created by Newsweek with images from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites, shows visible monthly progress since construction began in mid-2024. Why was it built? Not everyone is convinced the site was built for an apocalyptic purpose. 'The tract is much larger than a normal military camp or military school, so it can only be assumed that it is an administrative center or a large training base,' said Hsu Yen-chi, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies and War Gaming in Taiwan, to the Financial Times. If the site is intended to be a reinforced command center, it is still unclear what implications this will have for China's approach to command and control. Another could focus on a fatal miscalculation near a disputed territory in the South China Sea, claimed by both China and the Philippines, a U.S. ally under the Mutual Defense Treaty.
'The adoption of mission-type command by the PLA could worsen its behavior in crisis situations due to less coordination and control of frontline forces by high commands.'
