Comprehensively Improve the Modernization of National Defense and the Armed Forces
Xi Jinping Research Center for Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the National Defense University
Building a consolidated national defense and a strong military is a goal our Party has pursued untiringly. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Chairman Xi, with the preeminent strategic wisdom of a Marxist statesman, thinker, and strategist, has strengthened strategic guidance, clarified strategic arrangements, and made strategic deployments during the great practice of leading the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. He has clearly demarcated the blueprint and roadmap for marching toward a world-class military. The military writings included in Volumes I through V of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China provide a complete demonstration of the historical process of comprehensively improving the modernization level of national defense and the armed forces under the guidance of Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the military. Chairman Xi’s series of important expositions on comprehensively improving the modernization level of national defense and the armed forces are rich in connotation, profound, and rigorous in logic. They further enrich and develop Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the military, represent the latest achievement of the Party’s military guiding theory, and provide the fundamental compliance and an action guide for winning new victories in the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. We must profoundly study and comprehend them, implementing them with greater resolve and vigor.
Profoundly comprehending the far-reaching considerations for comprehensively improving the level of national defense and military modernization.
Strategizing from the command tent with the big picture in mind [1]. Volume V of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China includes several works, such as "Boost New Development in the Cause of Strengthening the Military by Strengthening Military Governance," "Comprehensively Enhance Strategic Capabilities in Emerging Fields," and "Implement the Strategy of Building the Military Politically in the New Era to Provide a Strong Political Guarantee for the Cause of Strengthening the Military." These works make a series of decisions and instructions with profound historical significance and far-reaching strategic considerations, reflecting our Party's deep grasp of the objective laws governing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. They are of profound significance for the comprehensive building of a world-class military.
Promoting strategic planning by integrating it into the system of Chinese-path modernization. "A strong country must have a strong military; only a strong military can ensure national security." In safeguarding national security, military means always serve as the bottom line and act as the "stabilizing sea needle" [2]. The process of national defense and military modernization must adapt to the process of national modernization, and military strength must adapt to the strategic requirements of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Without the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, there can be no Chinese-path modernization. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Chairman Xi has focused on coordinating major relationships such as politics and military affairs, political strategy and military strategy, enriching the country and strengthening the military, and preparing for war and stopping war. He has planned and promoted national defense and military modernization within the process of Chinese-path modernization, linking 2027, 2035, and the middle of this century to form a new "three-step" strategy for national defense and military modernization. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress integrated national defense and military modernization into the overall strategic situation of Chinese-path modernization and the overall process of building a modern socialist country. The Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee stated: "The modernization of national defense and the armed forces is an important component of Chinese-path modernization." The Proposal of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee [3] further posited that "consolidating national defense and a strong military is the strategic support for Chinese-path modernization" and made strategic deployments for the high-quality development of national defense and military modernization. Applying a "big picture view of history" [4] to make such strategic sketches clarifies the landscape of our military's construction and development for the coming decades, providing a program of action for the people's army to march toward a world-class force. Facing the historical task of leapfrog development toward becoming world-class, we must accurately grasp the phased characteristics of the next five years and take precise measures to break through bottlenecks and weaknesses on the road to strengthening the military, laying a solid foundation for basically achieving the modernization of national defense and the armed forces.
The mission and responsibility of realizing the centenary goal of military building. The modernization of national defense and the armed forces is a historical process of continuous development and progress, requiring sustained advancement in stages. From the time Chairman Xi presided over the 32nd collective study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee and clearly stated that "promoting the realization of the centenary goal of military building is a profound transformation concerning the overall situation of our military's construction," to emphasizing in the report to the 20th CPC National Congress that "achieving the centenary goal of military building as scheduled and accelerating the transformation of the people's army into a world-class military are strategic requirements for comprehensively building a modern socialist country," and finally to 2024 when inspecting and greeting troops stationed in Tianjin, emphasizing the need to "hold fast to winning the tough battle to achieve the centenary goal of military building"—these major strategic designs for national defense and military modernization reflect that achieving the centenary goal of military building is a crucial step in the new "three-step" strategy. At the same time, they provide strategic leadership for achieving the phased goals and tasks of national defense and military modernization. Engels said, "Time is the army." The "15th Five-Year Plan" period [5] is a critical period for laying a solid foundation and exerting full force to basically realize socialist modernization. Our military's modernization must remain tightly anchored to the centenary goal of military building, persisting in the unification of time nodes and quality requirements, and the unification of overall coordination and key advancements. We must focus on breaking through deep-seated institutional and mechanistic obstacles that constrain modernization, advancing the cause of strengthening the military with better strategies, higher efficiency, and greater speed to achieve leapfrog development in our military's modernization.
Winning the historical initiative in international military competition. Those who perceive the trend are wise; those who master the trend win. Currently, a new round of technological revolution, industrial transformation, and military revolution has entered a period of accelerated development. Features of changes in technology, changes in warfare, and changes in adversaries are becoming increasingly prominent. Chairman Xi has repeatedly emphasized: "If we do not recognize change, respond to change, or seek change, we may fall into strategic passivity, miss development opportunities, and even miss an entire era." The essence of this new military revolution is the struggle for strategic initiative. From the perspective of the evolution of war forms, modern warfare is accelerating toward informationized warfare, and intelligentized warfare is already emerging. Changes in the concepts, elements, and methods of winning wars place more urgent demands on accelerating national defense and military modernization. From the perspective of military development trends, integrated joint operations based on a network information system—characterized by "information dominance, systemic support, precision operations, and victory through jointness"—have become the basic operation style. Long-range precision, intelligence, stealth, and unmanned capabilities have become the hallmarks of weaponry and equipment in this era, reflecting the development direction of national defense and military modernization. From the perspective of the cause of strengthening the military, our military is striding forward on a new journey of high-quality development. Profound changes have occurred in military power, weapons and equipment, and organizational forms, yet some "chokepoints" [6] still exist in the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. All of these urgently require our military to transform, reshape, and achieve leapfrog development to win the gambling odds and strive for "overtaking on a curve" or "overtaking on a new track."
Firmly grasping the requirements of the times for comprehensively improving the level of national defense and military modernization.
Modernization began in the West, but there is more than one road to achieving it. Based on his profound grasp of the "two overall situations" [7], Chairman Xi has made a series of strategic plans and deployments for accelerating national defense and military modernization during the magnificent practice of steering the cause of a strong country and a strong military. Volumes I through V of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China collect some representative and important expositions that further clarify the struggle goals, strategic steps, and basic tasks of national defense and military modernization, leading our military's modernization into the "fast lane" and pressing the "fast forward button."
Taking the advancement of building the military politically as the fundamental guarantee. The leadership of the Party is the fundamental guarantee for promoting Chinese-path modernization; it determines the fundamental nature of Chinese-path modernization and also determines the fundamental nature of national defense and military modernization. In 2014, at the Whole-Army Political Work Conference, Chairman Xi proposed to "closely focus on the theme of the times for our military's political work, strengthen and improve our military's political work under the new situation, and give full play to the 'lifeline' role of political work in strengthening and revitalizing the military." This established the grand strategy of building the military politically in the journey of strengthening the country and the military. Ten years later, at the Central Military Commission (CMC) Political Work Conference, Chairman Xi systematically summarized the historical achievements of building the military politically in the New Era, condensed and summarized the connotation and points of the "Ten Clarifications" (shí gè míngquè), and for the first time clarified the theoretical system of our Party's political military building. This demonstrated the far-sightedness of the integrated operation of politics and military affairs, the superb wisdom of fighting political-military battles, and reflected the scientific design and systemic deployment of building the military politically. He proposed the requirements of the times for the "Six Ensures" (liù gè quèbǎo), clarifying the need to promote political military building without a moment's pause from six dimensions: strengthening the foundation and lifeline, the fundamental function, the source of strength, the key support, the political color, and the important guarantee of the people's army, thereby continuously increasing our military's political advantages under new historical conditions. He proposed to "grasp the key tasks in six aspects," effectively solving difficult problems such as how to scientifically respond to the intricate tests our military faces politically and how to handle deep-seated contradictions in building the military politically, promoting major innovative development in the Party's thinking on building the military politically. These new thoughts, viewpoints, and judgments profoundly reveal that strengthening the military must first start with being politically strong, and that political strength is the most fundamental strength. They require giving full play to the political advantage of the Party's absolute leadership over the people's army and forever preserving the nature, purpose, and character of the people's army.
Taking high-level military governance as the strategic grasp. Military governance is an important aspect of promoting the modernization of the state governance system and governance capacity, reflecting the strategic requirements for accelerating national defense and military modernization. In the report to the 20th CPC National Congress, Chairman Xi first proposed "comprehensively strengthening military governance"; during the seventh collective study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee, Chairman Xi systematically expounded on this major proposition, emphasizing the need to "build a modern military governance system, improve modern military governance capacity, and drive high-quality development of our military with high-level governance." The Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed "improving the military governance system"; the Proposal of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee explicitly proposed "promoting the modernization of military governance" and included "continuously deepening political rectification" within it. Looking back at the development process of national defense and military modernization in the New Era, from building an indicator system, standard system, statistical system, evaluation system, and supervision system to promote high-quality development, to enhancing the ability for systemic governance, law-based governance, comprehensive governance, and governance at the source, and building a cross-military-civilian work pattern where everyone performs their duties with close cooperation and standardized order, Chairman Xi has always focused on exploiting the strategic function of governance to regulate internal and external relations, standardize work operations, and enhance overall efficiency. Currently, investment in national defense and military construction has increased and the division of labor has become increasingly fine, but the problem of sluggish operation of the military system has not yet been effectively resolved. The new "Time" and "Momentum" require persisting in improving the leadership and management system and mechanisms of the people's army, strengthening and improving strategic management, and deeply advancing the rule of law in the military. We must focus on breaking through the chokepoints and bottlenecks that restrict high-quality development, improving the operational efficiency of the military system and the utilization efficiency of national defense resources, comprehensively enhancing the "quality" of modernization with the "governance" (zhi) of modernization, and aiding the new development of the cause of strengthening the military with new reinforcements in military governance.
Taking the acceleration of strategic capability building in emerging fields as a priority task. The way humanity produces is the way humanity fights. Chairman Xi emphasized: "Strategic capabilities in emerging fields are an important part of the national strategic system and capabilities; they concern the high-quality economic and social development of our country, national security, and initiative in military struggle. They are of great significance for comprehensively promoting the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization." Emerging fields currently mainly cover new strategic spaces such as space, the deep sea, and the internet. They are comprehensively reshaping means of combat, demonstrating unprecedented transformative and disruptive potential, and driving the accelerated evolution of war forms and combat methods. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Chairman Xi coordinated the development of strategic emerging industries and new-type combat forces, effectively promoting the comprehensive improvement of strategic capabilities in emerging fields. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must even more resolutely and consciously implement Chairman Xi's decisions and instructions, seizing development priorities and fully implementing relevant strategies and plans. We must update our thinking and concepts, keeping a close eye on the frontiers of emerging technological development, exploring new mechanisms for winning wars, and promoting the large-scale, combat-oriented, and systemic development of new-domain and new-quality combat forces, leading the transformation of combat styles to better navigate and win wars. We must strengthen innovative development, persist in self-reliance and self-strengthening, take ourselves as the mainstay, proceed from reality, focus on strengthening independent and original innovation, create growth poles for new quality productive forces and new quality combat effectiveness, and build a self-reliant, open, integrated, and vibrant innovation ecosystem to promote a vivid situation where breakthroughs occur at multiple points and burst forth in groups. We must persist in making key breakthroughs, using systemic thinking and methods of overall planning, scientifically designing a roadmap for enhancing strategic capabilities in emerging fields, deepening the reform of the national defense science and technology industry system, optimizing the layout of the national defense science and technology industry, and perfecting mechanisms for agile response and rapid transformation of advanced technologies. We must vigorously develop new combat forces and means to achieve an overall upgrade of the combat system and improve the overall efficiency of development in emerging fields.
Taking the integrated development of mechanization, informationization, and intelligentization as the path of realization. The modernization of national defense and the armed forces is dynamic and developing, with different goals and requirements at different stages. Our military...
In the 1950s, the goal of achieving mechanization was proposed, and New China gradually established its national defense industry. Since the 1990s, the goal of building an informationized military and winning informationized wars was put forward to adapt to the trends of information technology development. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress emphasized "persisting in the integrated development of mechanization, informationization, and intelligence," endowing the modernization of national defense and the military with new connotations for the New Era. It requires mechanization as the foundation, informationization as the leading force, and intelligence as the direction, thereby clarifying the developmental orientation, path, and model. Using mechanization as the foundation means advancing toward a higher-level and more comprehensive mechanization to provide the material basis and powerful support for the development of informationization and intelligence. Using informationization as the leading force means developing informationized weaponry and equipment, perfecting the military's organizational structure and establishment for informationization, creating informationized rear-service support and national defense mobilization, and cultivating new types of personnel possessed of information literacy. Using intelligence as the direction means strengthening research into core military intelligence technologies, key software and hardware, and basic theories, innovating intelligent combat thinking and operational concepts, and constructing an intelligent military system with Chinese characteristics. Mechanization, informationization, and intelligence promote one another. We must focus on the new requirements for winning modern wars, develop highly advanced mechanization and higher-level informationization, accelerate the process of intelligence, and realize the transition from echeloned development to integrated parallel progress, leading the modernization, transformation, and upgrading of national defense and the military.
Accelerating the Modernization of National Defense and the Military through High-Quality Development
The heroic people’s military is striding head-high toward becoming a world-class force with unstoppable momentum. Chairman Xi pointed out: "The current period and the period ahead are a critical stage for the modernization of national defense and the military; there must be a major development, and the conditions are fully in place to achieve it." By repeatedly studying the military works collected in the fifth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, we can profoundly understand that accelerating the modernization of national defense and the military is a major political task and a complex systematic project. It must be guided and advanced by the military outlook and methodology contained within Xi Jinping's thinking on strengthening the military. We must adhere to high-quality development, promote the improvement of quality and efficiency in all aspects of our military's construction during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period [8], and achieve a new leap in national defense strength through new developmental achievements.
Proactively integrating into the overall situation of building a powerful country and national rejuvenation. At present, global security issues have become prominent, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, and major power competition has become more complex and intense; our country faces many external risks and challenges. With a broad strategic vision, Chairman Xi has coordinated the "two overall situations" [9], understanding and advancing national defense and military construction under the grand goal of achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. He plans the strengthening and flourishing of the military with the building of a powerful country and national rejuvenation as the strategic core and fundamental focus. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period occupies an important position as a link between the past and the future in the process of basically achieving socialist modernization. This requires us to adhere to a broad vision and strategic perspective, resolutely submit to and serve the overall strategic situation of the Party and the state, consistently uphold principles and requirements, uphold the fundamentals and break new ground to optimize the strategic layout, accurately grasp the stage-specific requirements of the modernization of national defense and the military over the next five years, coordinately advance the key tasks of modernization, and promote the simultaneous enhancement of national defense strength and economic strength.
Giving full play to the driving role of reform and innovation. Reform and innovation are the powerful engines for the high-quality development of national defense and the military. According to the principle of the movement of contradictions between the productive forces and the relations of production, adjusting irrational relations of production can generate new momentum for the development of productive forces. Throughout the history of our military's reform and development, whenever the operation of the military system has hindered or restricted the generation and development of combat effectiveness, we have taken the knife to "internal ailments" and "persistent maladies" such as conceptual obstacles, vested interests, and management constraints that deviate from the standards of combat power. Comprehensively deepening the reform of national defense and the military is, in essence, an adjustment and reform of the military's "relations of production" and a holistic reshaping of the modernization of the military's organizational forms, making them better adapted to the development of "productive forces" under the conditions of informationized and intelligent warfare. Reform is a process that is always "in-progress" and never "finished." To advance the modernization of national defense and the military during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period with high quality, we must closely follow the development trends of world military affairs and warfare, stay close to the modernization process of our military, continuously deepen the reform of national defense and the military, launch the engine of scientific and technological innovation at full speed, promote the innovative development of our military's construction and combat power generation models, and further transition toward systemic, holistic, and global innovation.
Coordinating the integrated construction of "fighting, building, and preparing." Persisting in simultaneous struggle, combat readiness, and construction [10] is a prominent feature of our military in the coming period and an important measure for accelerating the construction and application of advanced combat power as a system. As the national security situation changes, the missions and tasks of our military are constantly expanding; the boundaries between peacetime and wartime are increasingly blurred, and there is no "gear-shift" period between struggle, combat readiness, and construction. Combat requirements must be implemented throughout all aspects and the entire process of national defense and military modernization. Advancing the high-quality development of integrated fighting, building, and preparing is not only a characteristic and an orientation but also a strategy and a method; it contains the military dialectics of war and peace, military affairs and politics, struggle and development, and readiness and construction. Practice has proven that the military is built according to how battles are fought. The Proposal of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee clearly stated: "Deepen strategic and operational planning, solidly advance combat-oriented military training, strengthen the integration of the combat capability system, innovate the models of combat power construction and application, and enhance the targeted nature, initiative, and shaping power of military struggle." At this critical juncture of leapfrog development, we must seize upon the fundamental orientation of being able to fight and win, further highlight the leading role of "fighting," improve the efficiency of "building," and strengthen the support of "preparing," so as to accelerate the building of advanced combat power and provide a powerful pull for the modernization of national defense and the military.
Improving the quality and efficiency of the modernization of national defense and the military. Persisting in "quality first and efficiency priority" is Chairman Xi's consistent thought and requirement. The year 2026 is the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and a critical year for the "tough battle" to achieve the Centenary Goal of the People's Liberation Army. A sluggish speed of development will not do, and a lack of "true color" in the quality of modernization will do even less. For the modernization of national defense and the military during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must accelerate the modernization of military theory, optimize the top-level design of military theory innovation, improve the research model of military theory, strengthen the transformation and application of military theory, and implement the project for advancing military theory modernization. We must accelerate the modernization of military organizational forms, perfect the structure and composition of military forces, systematically optimize military policies and systems, and expand strategic forces and new-domain/new-quality combat forces. We must accelerate the modernization of military personnel, using more proactive, vigorous, and effective policy measures to improve the level of education in military academies and accelerate the forging of a phalanx of military talent. We must accelerate the modernization of weaponry and equipment, accelerating the development of strategic, frontier, and disruptive technologies, accelerating the upgrading and replacement of weaponry and equipment, and developing more "Slayer’s Mace" [11] weaponry. This requires our military to shift from quantitative growth to qualitative improvement, promoting our military's development from "having or not" to "good or not," and from "big or not" to "strong or not," continuously pushing the modernization of national defense and the military forward.
(Authors: Wang Qiang, Liu Guangming) Source: People’s Daily (February 26, 2026) Editor: Huihui