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Building world-class armed forces for China(Xinhua) 08:11, August 02, 2024
BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) celebrates its 97th founding anniversary on Thursday.
The past few days have seen President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), engage in a string of activities concerning the military.
He convened a Party leadership study session, calling for modernizing border, coastal and air defense. He wrote back to officers and soldiers of an elite army company with its history dating back to the Red Army days, urging them to strengthen training in real combat conditions.
He also made an instruction on veterans' affairs, emphasizing the importance of making military service an honorable occupation and ensuring that ex-service personnel enjoy respect from the whole society.
On Thursday, Xi's article on modernizing national defense and the armed forces was published by Qiushi, a flagship Party magazine.
In the article, Xi said developing the people's army into a world-class military at a faster pace is a "strategic task" for building a modern socialist country in all respects.
He said the military's political integrity must be enhanced and the military should be strengthened through reform, development of science and technology, as well as talent cultivation.
PRESERVE POLITICAL INTEGRITY
In the Qiushi article, Xi said "the barrel of the gun" should always follow the Party's order, echoing Chairman Mao's most famous dictum -- "political power comes from the barrel of a gun."
Since its founding 97 years ago, the PLA has always acted and fought under the Party's absolute leadership. Precisely due to this steadfast guidance, the PLA has grown from nothing into a strong force.
"History tells us that 'the Party commands the gun' is a basic guarantee to ensure the people's army maintains its essential nature and aim," Xi once said.
In June, Xi convened a pivotal political work conference of the armed forces in Yan'an, an old revolutionary base where the Red Army was stationed about 90 years ago after the Long March. It was in Yan'an that Mao led the people's army to regain its strength and fight the wars that led to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
In Yan'an, Xi emphasized the need to uphold the Party's absolute leadership over the military and to build a high-quality team of cadres that is loyal, clean, responsible and capable.
Since becoming China's top leader, Xi has taken steps to address concerns over weakened Party leadership in the military, an issue that people feared could undermine combat effectiveness and threaten the fundamental political principle that the Party commands the military.
Over the years, the political climate within the military has improved significantly through the full implementation of the system of ultimate responsibility resting with the CMC chairman, along with advancements in integrity building and anti-corruption efforts, and adoption of other measures.
STRENGTHEN THE MILITARY THROUGH REFORM
In mid-July, a pivotal Party resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee reiterated the importance of strengthening the military through reform to ensure the realization of the PLA's 2027 centenary goals.
Reform has been the key theme as Xi has reshaped the armed forces over the past decade.
Major changes have taken place within the armed forces since late November 2015, when Xi convened a key meeting in Beijing to launch "the most extensive and profound reform of national defense and the armed forces" since 1949.
The PLA has dismantled long-established systems of general departments and military area commands, altered the dominance of land forces within the overall force composition, and established new leadership, management and operational command systems.
Five theater commands have been established, and services have been rebalanced. The country's navy and rocket forces have expanded, the number of non-combat personnel has been reduced and combat forces have grown.
The proportion of land forces in the military has dropped to below 50 percent, nearly half of all non-combatant organization personnel have been removed, and the number of officers has been reduced by 30 percent.
The PLA now has a system of services that comprises the army, navy, air force and rocket force, with branches including the country's aerospace force, cyberspace force, information support force and joint logistics support force.
During exercises and training, previously independent military units across different services now conduct joint operations under a theater command. Previously isolated information is now circulated efficiently among various military units within theater commands.
In the latest structural reform, the PLA's information support force was established and commenced in April.
