Seizing First Mover Advantage:People’s Liberation Army Embracing theIntelligentised Warfare

Since its inception, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone fundamental changes in its military strategy. To anticipate the turbulent international environment and maintain a favourable balance of power, the PLA has made incremental adaptations to its military strategy, reformed its organisational structure, and modified its operational concepts. Currently, the arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing, Big Data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has compelled the PLA to capitalise on the first-mover advantage to prevail in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The paper analyses the concept of intelligentised warfare and associated impacts on China’s military strategy. It highlights the organisational reforms and strategies adopted by the PLA to embrace a major change in its organisational structure. Based on these factors, the paper argues that embracing intelligentisation will enable the PLA to emerge as a formidable actor against its adversaries on the future battlefield.