An army’s professional military education (PME) reveals much about the characteristics it seeks in its personnel and about that army overall. A study of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exposes a shift from masses of personnel to “informatization” of the force. A focus on technical skills will give way to such strategic competencies as understanding the effect of nonmilitary dynamics on military affairs. Other reforms will follow, including consolidation of military schools and a centralized training and education command that can synchronize PME for the modular force. Better educated and more skilled noncommissioned officers will take pressure off the officer corps, and PLA officers will be the rough equal of officers in other modern militaries by 2025 |