Three Main Tasks of the People’s Army

The Chinese People's Liberation Army undertook three basic tasks: combat team, task force and production team. It is determined by the nature and purpose of the People's Army and the characteristics of the Chinese revolutionary war, which was an important element of Mao Zedong's principle of building the people's army. The three major tasks of the People's Army were formed and developed in the practice of China's revolutionary war.

As early as in late December 1927, when summing up the experience of the army in attacking Chaling County, Mao Zedong clearly proposed that the revolutionary army of workers and peasants should carry out the three major tasks of fighting and destroying the enemy, fighting landlords and raising money, and doing mass work.

In December 1929, Mao Zedong made a theoretical elaboration of the three major tasks of the army in the resolution of Gutian Conference drafted by him. The resolution pointed out that the Red Army is an armed group carrying out the political tasks of the revolution, and that the Red Army was never simply to fight, but in addition to fighting to destroy the enemy's military power, it also had the important task of propagating the masses, organizing them, arming them, and helping them to establish revolutionary power and even building the Communist Party. Without the objectives of publicity, organization, arming and establishing revolutionary power over the masses, the meaning of fighting a war is lost, and so is the meaning of the Red Army's existence.

During the Anti-Japanese War, the three major tasks of the army developed into warfare, mass work and production. The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army went deep into the enemy's rear, propagandized and mobilized the masses, established revolutionary power, expanded anti-Japanese forces, created anti-Japanese democratic bases, and developed the People's War. The great production campaign carried out by the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army supplemented the troops' supplies, reduced the people's burden, and overcame the serious financial and economic difficulties caused by the brutal attacks of the Japanese invasion forces and the siege of the KMT, and provided material guarantee for the final victory of the Anti-Japanese War.

During the War of Liberation, the Chinese People's Liberation Army sent a large number of cadres and soldiers to form task forces to assist the local party and government organs to mobilize the masses, implement rent and interest reduction and land reform, help the people turn over and liberate themselves, develop industrial and agricultural production, and comprehensively strengthen the strategic rear construction of the Liberated Areas politically, economically and militarily. On the eve of the national victory in the War of Liberation, Mao Zedong pointed out in time that the People's Liberation Army will always be a combat team, a task force and a production team.

Following the decision of the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee and the deployment of the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, the Chinese People's Liberation Army took on more tasks of the task force in its march to the whole country, and sent a large number of cadres and soldiers to take over and manage the cities and open up new areas in every city it liberated, thus winning an overall victory in the War of Liberation.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese People's Liberation Army was still a fighting force, as well as a task force and not only as a national defense force but also as a production force. It "had to be prepared for war, to produce, and to do mass work."

The Chinese People's Liberation Army has carried out inland anti-banditry, liberated coastal islands, fought back in self-defense on the border, and maintained national security and independence. It brought education and training to a strategic position, strengthened the revolutionary, modernized and formalized construction of the army, continuously improved the military and political quality of the troops and the level of technical equipment, and made preparations for the war against aggression. It aimed to carry forward the fine tradition of doing mass work and supporting the government and loving the people, participate in national economic construction, support social welfare undertakings, carry out joint military-civilian activities to build socialist spiritual civilization, train military and local talents for both purposes, and establish new military-political and military-civilian relations. It also aimed to continue to shoulder the task of production teams, set up production and construction corps, develop frontier islands, insist on agricultural and sideline production, and organize military and defense enterprises.

The People's Army carried out three major tasks, which is a remarkable sign that distinguishes it from other armies. The People's Army carries out the three major tasks in a primary and secondary way. The fundamental task of the People's Army is the combat team, and the task forces and production teams cannot interfere with the execution of combat tasks as a combat team.