Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Enters a New Era

3. Build the people’s army into a world-class army

Speeding up the building of the people’s army into a world-class army is the political demand and ardent expectation of the party and the people for the people’s army in the new era, an inevitable requirement for realizing the “two centenary goals” and realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and also a call to action for all officers and men to promote the practice of strengthening the army.

The people’s army shoulders the historical mission of providing strategic support for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In the new era, profound changes have taken place in the connotation and extension of China’s security, in the field of time and space, and in internal and external factors. The period when we move from big to strong and strong is often a high-risk period for national security, and the more we develop and grow, the greater the pressure and resistance we face. This is an unavoidable challenge in the process of China’s development from big to strong, and it is the threshold that cannot be bypassed to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. “A strong country must strengthen its army, and a strong army can ensure national security.“1 National defense and army building are the strong backing of national security, military means are the means to guarantee the realization of great dreams, military struggle is an important aspect of waging great struggle, and the ability to win is a strategic capability for safeguarding national security. Comrade Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out that our military must provide strategic support for consolidating the leadership of the Communist Party of China and China’s socialist system, providing strategic support for safeguarding national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, providing strategic support for expanding China’s overseas interests, and providing strategic support for promoting world peace and development. This is the mission and task entrusted by the party and the people to the people’s army in the new era, the strategic requirement to support the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the full value of our army. This requires the whole army to strengthen its mission responsibility, enhance its sense of distress and enterprising spirit, and accelerate its ability to fulfill its mission and tasks in the new era with a sense of urgency that time does not wait for us and only seize the day.

The people’s army has taken firm steps on the road of strengthening the army with Chinese characteristics. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Xi Jinping has focused on realizing the Chinese dream and the dream of strengthening the army

Comprehensively grasp the general international and domestic trends, closely focus on building a people’s army that obeys the command of the party, can win battles and has a good work style, put forward a series of major principles and principles, made a series of major policy decisions and arrangements, promoted a series of major tasks, made a series of major tasks, made every effort to promote the modernization of national defense and the army, led the people’s army to take firm steps on the road of strengthening the army with Chinese characteristics, achieved historic achievements and historic changes, and led national defense and army building into a new era. This is mainly reflected in: revitalizing the political program, unswervingly promoting political rectification and training, and effectively solving the conspicuous problem of weakening the party’s absolute leadership over the army; reshaping the organizational form, boldly deepening reform in an all- round way, and effectively solving the conspicuous problems restricting the institutional structure of our army’s construction; reorganizing the pattern of struggle, firmly defending the core interests of the country, and effectively solving the outstanding problems in the use and use of military forces; reconstructing the layout of construction, innovating development concepts and methods, and effectively solving the problem that our army’s construction is not enough to focus on actual combat. The conspicuous problem of poor quality and efficiency; re-establishing the image of work style, vigorously promoting healthy tendencies, discipline and anti-corruption, and effectively solving the conspicuous problems of unhealthy tendencies and corruption breeding and spreading. The achievement of these historic achievements and the occurrence of historic changes fundamentally lie in the strong leadership of Comrade Xi Jinping, the core of the Party Central Committee, the core of the whole Party and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and in the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the military. Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Army, leading the practice of strengthening the army and sublimating it in the practice of strengthening the army, is the crystallization of the practical experience and wisdom of the people’s army since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and is a fundamental achievement in building and managing the army and strengthening the army in the new era. To realize the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, we must firmly establish the guiding position of Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the military in national defense and army building.

Grasp the strategic arrangements for comprehensively promoting the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. The 19th CPC National Congress put forward a road map, timetable, and mission statement for comprehensively promoting the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. That is, to adapt to the development trend of the world’s new military revolution and the needs of national security, improve the quality and efficiency of construction, ensure that mechanization is basically realized by 2020, major progress has been made in informationization construction, and strategic capabilities have been greatly improved. In line with the process of national modernization, we will comprehensively promote the modernization of military theory, the organizational form of the armed forces, the modernization of military personnel, and the modernization of weapons and equipment, strive to basically modernize national defense and the armed forces by 2035, and comprehensively build the people’s army into a world-class army by the middle of this century. This strategic arrangement embodies the requirements of the times in line with the process of national modernization and development, embodies the strategic requirements of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics for strengthening the army in the new era, and demonstrates the determination and courage of the Communist Party of China to accelerate the pace of building a strong army.

The whole army should firmly grasp the goals and tasks of national defense and army building, concentrate efforts to tackle tough problems, grasp quick work, and work through to the end with a blueprint to ensure that it is built into a world-class army as scheduled. Grasp the strategic priorities of national defense and army modernization. The modernization of national defense and the armed forces is a systematic project, with a myriad of problems, and it is necessary to pinpoint strategic priorities and promote overall improvement with key breakthroughs. The first is to build a joint operations command system, build a strong and efficient theater joint operations command organization, open up the command link of the whole system and process of joint operations, and promote the improvement of the joint operation capability of the whole army. The second is to build a new type of military management system, improve the strategic management link of “demand one planning, one budget, one implementation and one assessment”, and improve the operational efficiency of military systems and the quality and efficiency of our military construction. The third is to build a modern military force system, coordinate the construction of all parties in various fields, coordinate the construction of combat forces, support and support forces, and promote the overall improvement of our military’s force system. The fourth is to build a new-type military training system, persist in actual combat training and joint combat training, persist in promoting construction with training and combining training with application, and improve the level of actual combat training. Fifth, vigorously implement the strategic project of qualified personnel, strengthen the construction of a new-type military personnel training system of “trinity” in military academies and schools, military training practice, and military vocational education, and promote the overall leap in the level of personnel construction. Sixth, build a national defense science and technology innovation system, accelerate the development of high-tech weapons and equipment, and improve the quality of weapons and equipment and the scientific level of architecture. The seventh is to build a modern military policy and institutional system, systematically plan, forward-looking, and overall reshape the policy system, and create an institutional environment with strong constraints and effective incentives. The eighth is to build a military-civilian integration development system, gradually realize the integration of the country’s strategic layout in all fields, the integration of strategic resources, and the integrated use of strategic forces, accelerate the formation of an all-factor, multi-field, and high-efficiency pattern of in-depth development of military-civilian integration, give play to the political advantages of the socialist system that can concentrate on major things, and maximize the comprehensive benefits of economic construction and national defense construction. At the same time, we should vigorously carry forward the glorious tradition of loving the people and supporting the army, improve and implement the honor system for military personnel, strengthen the management and guarantee of retired servicemen, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families, strengthen national defense education for the whole people, improve the national defense mobilization system, consolidate and develop rock-solid military-government and military-civilian relations, and unite the powerful force for building a world-class army.