Introduction; 1. Social Trends in China: Implications for the People's Liberation Army, Tony Saich; 2. The Impact of Social Changes on the PLA: A Chinese Military Perspective, Xiaobing Li; 3. The New Military Elite: Generational Profile and Contradictory Trends, Cheng Li; 4. The Fourth-Generation Leaders and the New Military Elite, Yu Bin; 5. The PLA and the Provinces: Military District and Local Issues, Zhiyue Bo; 6. The Political Implications of PLA Professionalism, Lyman Miller; 7. Unravelling the Myths about Political Commissars, You Ji; 8.

Searching for a Twenty-First Century Officer Corps, Thomas J. Bickford; 9. Educating the Officer Corps: The Chinese People's Liberation Army and Its Interactions with Civilian Academic Institutions, Kristen Gunness; 10. China's Defense Budget: Is There Impending Friction Between Defense and Civilian Needs? Joseph Fewsmith; 11. The PLA in the New Economy: Plus Ca Change, Plus Ca Meme Chose, James Mulvenon; 12. Conscription: From the Masses, Sijin Cheng; 13. Demobilization and Resettlement: The Challenge of Downsizing the People's Liberation Army, Maryanne Kivlehan-Wise; 14. People's War in the Twenty-First Century: The Militia and the Reserves, Dennis J.

Blasko.