Tasks of People’s Army in Socialist Period

The basic task of the Chinese People's Army, before the founding of New China, was to carry out revolutionary warfare to overthrow the reactionary rule of imperialism and feudalism and to strive for the victory of the national democratic revolution.

After the founding of New China, on August 1, 1950, Mao Zedong pointed out: “The task of the People's Liberation Army in the future, apart from the liberation of Xizang and Taiwan and the extermination of the remaining bandits, is mainly to build up national defense, prepare for possible imperialist aggression, maintain domestic security, and consolidate the people's democratic dictatorship. At the same time, it must also participate as much as possible in the economic construction work and other work of the country.”

The specific tasks of the Chinese People's Army, during the revolutionary war years, were to fight battles, raise money (later production) and do mass work, that is, to play the role of a combat team, a production force and a task force. Under the new historical conditions, Mao Zedong pointed out that the army is still needed to shoulder these three major tasks.

The People's Army should always be a combat team. “In addition to combat, in peacetime, it is the army construction, combat preparation and all kinds of regular work centered on training.” Also, the People’s Army should be “not only a defense army, but also a production army”. In this way, the unity between the army and the local community and between the army and the people can be strengthened; the troops can be trained, learn the knowledge and skills of production, and improve the labor concept and communist consciousness of the troops.

The People’s Army “for the enemy it is a fighting force, but for the people it is a task force that serves them”, and “we still have to do mass work.”