A lot of the PLA reluctance do to anything about North Korea has to do with the problems of taking any military action against the DPRK (which Beijing has to do if it wants to have a role in shaping the future of the post war Korean Peninsula). I don't really think ideological or emotional attachment really has anything for the current PLA leadership, whose defining military experience was the Sino-Vietnamese war (at least not much as say 1994) and from what I've heard through anecdotal sources, the mid and lower PLA officers detest the DPRK.Chris OFarrell wrote: On the other hand, I've also read that the PLA are firmly in the North Koreans court, something that surprised me. But apparently at the high 'oldschool General' level, there are very deep, active and strong ties between the two nations, from the Korean war days till now, and they are being far more hostile to the idea that the North did this or, at least, that they were unprovoked in doing it.
Until we see this play out in the Chinese Government and a clear position taken, I get the feeling China is going to keep making very indecisive, neutral and useless comments...but time is running out for them to take a side, one way or the other...
As is the case with most civilian controlled military, the PLA usually isn't too happy about fighting actual wars of choices. The reason for their reluctance is that while the 39th Group Army and other Shenyang Military Region units would easily stomp the KPA into oblivion, especially since they don't have to worry about getting across, the DMZ, you're talking about taking the elite units of the PLA and sending them into what would most likely be an extended counter insurgency operation like the current Iraq insurgency, which would tie down PLA units at the forefront of China's attempt to modernize, mechanize and 'digitalize' its ground forces. Additionally, a major ground operation by the PLA would divert resources from PLAN and PLAAF modernization.
Beijing will also have to explain to the Chinese public why they sent what could easily be 10,000 Chinese soldiers to their death (fighting the KPA and following insurgencies would probably be a lot more deadly than Iraq). And the DPRK has a fair amount of ballistic missiles that could easily hit Chinese cities. China does have domestic and Russian ABM systems, but there's no guarantee that they'll knock out most of the missiles, especially if you figure in potential chemical and biological warheads.