China increasingly using PLA as instrument of coercion – USUS and Chinese flags are seen before a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 8, 2023. MANILA, Philippines — China’s People’s Liberation Army is no longer in the background, with Beijing increasingly turning to the PLA as an instrument of coercion in trying to achieve its revisionist aims in the East and South China Seas, according to an official of the United States Department of Defense. US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner said the Pentagon would release the annual China Military Power Report that underscores the agency’s fundamental assessment. “This includes PLA activities in the air and at sea that increase the likelihood of an accident that could spiral into crisis or conflict,” he added. The US defense official pointed out that the PLA is modernizing, but China is using its military tool very much in the background and diplomatically and economically driven in terms of how it is trying to achieve its foreign policy aims.
