Build a Revolutionary, Modern, Regularized Army

It refers to the general struggle goals and tasks of the Chinese People's Liberation Army after the founding of New China, especially since the Reform and Opening-up. On July 10, 1952, Mao Zedong proposed the task of military modernization and regularization for the first time in his instruction to the military academy, which pointed out that we had reached the advanced stage of army building, and we need to build a regular and modern defense force. Modernization means that the weapons and equipment, strategies and tactics of the army must be adapted to the modernization level of social productivity and scientific and technological development, and constantly develop towards higher standards, which also include the updating and development of military theory. Regularization is contrary to the guerrilla nature formed in the history of the People’s Liberation Army and is an inevitable requirement for modernization. Mao Zedong pointed out that adapting to modern equipment requires the regularization of army building, implementation of unified command, unified system, unified establishment, unified discipline, and unified training, and achievement of close coordination of various arms.

To this end, it is necessary to overcome the decentralization, disunity, simple phenomena and guerrilla habits that were correct in the past but are incorrect at present. It is necessary to strengthen the unity of the entire work and command, and strengthen organization, planning, accuracy and discipline. This is one of the important conditions indispensable for building a regular and modern defense force. Revolutionization is the essence of the people’s army, mainly referring to the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly and the principle of the Party commanding the gun, including the enrichment and development of the army’s political work. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping proposed the task of building a powerful, modern and regular revolutionary army, further deepened the connotations of revolutionization, modernization and regularization, and expounded on the dialectical relationship between them. Revolutionization is a unique political character of our army. It requires to insist on putting revolutionization in the first place, ensure the correct direction of our army’s modernization, and under all circumstances, unremittingly adhere to the fundamental principles of the Party’s absolute leadership over the army, the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, as well as the fine traditions of the people’s army. Modernization requires to strive to adapt to the requirements of modern warfare, comprehensively improve the quality of officers and soldiers, continuously improve the scientific and technological content of army building and improve the overall combat capability and level under modern conditions. Regularization requires the army to adhere to the fundamental principles of governing the army in accordance with the law and with strict discipline, regulate all aspects of army building with regulations, and promote army building to gradually embark on an institutionalized and legalized development road. Any aspect of the “three modernizations” building has a bearing on the overall situation of army building, interconnecting with each other and promoting each other to form a whole, which constitutes a distinctive feature of army building in the new period. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping put forward a series of major strategic ideas, decisions and deployments, and opened up a new realm of the Party’s military guiding theory, with focus on the realization of the dream of a strong army, and basing on the overall situation of national security and development strategy.

It is proposed to focus on cultivating a new generation of revolutionary soldiers with soul, ability and morality. It is necessary to firmly establish the standard of combat effectiveness in an overall manner, focus on grasping the soul of strengthening the army, i.e., the Party’s absolute leadership over the army, and ensure that the gun is always in the hands of reliable people loyal to the Party, so as to lay a solid political, ideological and practical basis for strengthening and revitalizing the army.