China launches new cyber defense force to ‘win modern wars’

China has announced the creation within its army of a new cyber defense force, inaugurated with great fanfare by President Xi Jinping. This information support force (“Information Support Force” according to its official title in English) is a “strategic branch” of the armed forces intended to “win modern wars”said Friday April 19, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Defense.

The Chinese army is under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Beijing has gradually caught up with Western armies in recent decades. Its defense budget increases in step with its economic development. Today the second largest army in the world in terms of expenditure, which remains three times lower than that of the United States, China has become the main military force in Asia.

This emergence arouses the distrust of Washington and the concern of several neighboring countries. Because China has several territorial disputes, notably with Japan for control of islands in the East China Sea and with the Philippines, with whom it disputes islets and reefs in the South China Sea. The Asian giant also claims the island of Taiwan and maintains a border dispute with India.