Abstract
The 21st Century has seen the widespread expansion of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) capabilities across air, land and sea, as part of its reforms aimed at establishing what it calls a ‘World Class Military’ by 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Part of these reforms has been the improvement of the human capital of the PLA, inculcating not only new skills required to fight a modern-day conflict, but also aimed at reforming the work ethic and culture of the PLA at large, in order to remove behaviour that harms the PLA. The concept of ‘Formalism’ is one of these behaviours, which encourages the distortion and misrepresentation of facts up the chain of command, and certain actions taken in order to simply present a picture of work being done, and currying favour with superiors, while not actually solving on-ground problems and losing touch with reality.
This paper seeks to understand the phenomenon in detail by examining articles on the topic in the PLA’s official newspaper. It looks at how the practice manifests itself and at its effects on the organisation, in order to understand the implications it could carry for China’s ambitious programme of military reforms.
Keywords: People’s Liberation Army, Formalism, Military Reform, Combat Readiness, Organisational Culture
