The people’s army has entered a new era in reforming and strengthening the army.

Since the reform and opening up, China has made remarkable achievements in economic, political, social, cultural and ecological construction. At the same time, national defense and army building have undergone many reforms, and the People’s Army has made solid steps on the road of strengthening the army with China characteristics.

At the beginning of the reform and opening up, the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission made a scientific judgment that "peace and development" became the theme of the times according to the profound changes in the international situation and the development trend of the times, and promoted the strategic transformation of the guiding ideology of army building, that is, from preparing for "early war, large-scale war and nuclear war" to the track of peacetime construction, and promoted modernization in a planned and step-by-step manner on the premise of obeying and serving the overall situation of national construction. Since 1980, with the breakthrough of "reducing swelling", the army has carried out major adjustment and reform, thus promoting the road of elite soldiers with China characteristics. In 1985, the People’s Army reduced its posts by 1 million, which was a big step towards the goal of lean organization, flexible command, well-equipped, well-trained and quick response. This reform is a "major operation" on the army at the beginning of the new military revolution in the world, which makes the development of the people’s army catch up with the trend of the new military revolution and embark on the road of building the army with quality.

In the 1990s, with the drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the world began to develop towards multipolarization. With the Gulf War as the turning point, the new military revolution in the world entered a new qualitative stage. Therefore, centering on the general goal of "building a powerful modernized and regularized revolutionary army", the People’s Army has formulated a strategic policy of active defense in the new period based on winning local wars under modern technology, especially high-tech conditions, put forward the strategic goal of building an information-based army and winning information-based wars, and regarded military reform with China characteristics as the only way for the modernization of the army. In order to promote the military reform with China characteristics and the preparations for military struggle, the People’s Army has reduced its staff by 700,000 twice by reducing its scale, reforming its system, optimizing its structure, adjusting its formation and perfecting its system. The size of its troops has become leaner, the scientific and technological content of its construction has been significantly increased, its combat effectiveness has been greatly improved, and its modernization has achieved a century-long leap.

In the new stage of the new century, according to the new changes in the international situation and the actual development of the country, the People’s Army has persisted in implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development in national defense and army building, actively promoted the reform with restructuring and reform as the main body, strengthened organizational management, and consolidated the results of restructuring and reform. At the same time, according to the principle of coordinated development of national defense construction and economic construction, we should implement the strategic thinking of coordinating economic construction and national defense construction and realizing the unification of enriching the country and strengthening the army, fully fulfill the historical mission in the new stage of the new century, and enhance our ability to deal with various security threats and complete diversified military tasks. According to the requirements of military reform with China characteristics, we should accelerate the compound development of mechanization and informatization, actively carry out military training under informatization conditions, promote the innovation of military theory, military technology, military organization and military management, and constantly improve the core military ability to win local wars and the ability to carry out non-war military operations under informatization conditions.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has entered a critical stage of development from big to strong, the international structure and system have undergone profound adjustments, the new military revolution in the world has developed in depth, the national security situation in China has undergone new profound changes, and various predictable and unpredictable risks and challenges have increased significantly. Standing at the height of realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the Chairman of the Supreme Leader focused on realizing the party’s goal of strengthening the military in the new era and building a world-class army, and put deepening national defense and military reform into the overall plate of comprehensively deepening reform, rising to the will of the party and state behavior. In November 2015, the Central Military Commission held a meeting on reform. The Chairman of the Supreme Leader issued a great call to comprehensively implement the strategy of strengthening the army through reform and unswervingly follow the road of strengthening the army with China characteristics. He personally planned to promote national defense and army building, personally served as the leader of the leading group for national defense and army reform, and led the officers and men of the whole army to start a new journey of reforming and strengthening the army. At the end of 2015, the reform of the leadership and command system was carried out first, with the establishment of the army leadership, rocket army and strategic support force. The military commission was changed from four headquarters to 15 functional departments, and the seven war zones were adjusted to five war zones in the east, south, west, north and central regions, and the joint operational command institutions of the military commission and theater were established. The long-standing headquarters system, the large military region system and the continental army system of our army were broken, and a new people’s army was established. At the end of 2016, the reform of the size and strength of the military was officially launched. According to the principle of streamlining and high efficiency, the personnel of organs and non-combat institutions were streamlined, the combat troops were enriched, and the proportion of services was adjusted and improved.We will optimize the structure of military forces and reform the formation of troops. The original 18 group armies have been reorganized into 13, making the people’s army leaner in scale, more scientific in formation and more optimized in layout. At the same time, we will steadily push forward the reform of the policy system, introduce a series of supporting policy systems in the fields of military human resources and logistics, strengthen the centralized and unified management of military human resources, improve the training system of new military talents, and gradually establish a policy system that reflects the characteristics of military occupations and enhances the sense of professional honor and pride of military personnel. In addition, at the national level, the newly established Department of Veterans Affairs in the State Council and the in-depth implementation of integration of defense and civilian technologies’s development strategy have provided strong support for the smooth progress of reform and strengthening the army. This round of reform is an unprecedented overall reform and revolutionary remolding in the history of our army, and it has taken a historic step to build a military power system with China characteristics, making the people’s army a new system, a new structure, a new pattern and a new look.

The history of the growth and development of the people’s army is a history of reform and innovation. Since the reform and opening up, the practice of national defense and army building reform has proved that reform and innovation, keeping pace with the times, is a strategic choice to cope with the profound changes in the pattern of international military competition, an internal demand to realize national security and national rejuvenation, and an important guarantee for the continuous development and growth of the people’s army. As Socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, so did national defense and army building. Standing at a new starting point and in a new era, only by continuous reform and innovation can the people’s army continue to gain the vitality of development and progress, truly build itself into a world-class army, and provide strong strategic support for winning new great struggles and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

(Peng Yun)

(Researcher of the Army Party’s Innovation Theory Learning and Research Center)