Two Historical Topics on Army Building

In December 1997, Jiang Zemin made the statement of “winning battles and never degenerating”. The concept of “winning battles” means that in a complex international environment, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army can keep up with the trend of world military development and win high-tech wars that may occur in the future; “never degenerating” means, the Chinese People's Liberation Army can maintain the nature, character, and style of the people's army and always become a revolutionary army under the absolute leadership of the Party under the conditions of opening up to the outside world and developing a socialist market economy. Upholding the dialectical unity of “winning battles and never degenerating” reflects the essential requirements of the people's army building. “Winning battles” requires to build a modern army with strong actual combat capabilities and deterrent capabilities, which can win local wars under modern technologies, especially high-tech conditions, safeguard national security and unification, and provide reliable guarantee for the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics. “Never degenerating” means always upholding the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China over the army, always maintaining the nature, character and style of the people’s army, being able to withstand the test of any political storm, and always being the army of the Party, the people and the socialist country. Upholding the Party's absolute leadership over the army is the fundamental guarantee for “winning battles and never degenerating”.

The People's Liberation Army is an army created, led, and commanded by the Communist Party of China. The nature, purpose and progressiveness of the Party determine those of the army. The history of the development of the people’s army has repeatedly proven that the Party ’s absolute leadership over the army is the permanent soul. Only under the command of the Party can the people's army be all-conquering and invincible, and always maintain its own nature, character and style. To this end, it is necessary to refute and resist the wrong views such as non-Party affiliation, depoliticization and nationalization of the army. To solve the two historical problems of “winning battles and never degenerating”, we must constantly explore and grasp the characteristics and laws of military administration under the new situation, and the characteristics and laws of national defense construction; only by persisting in seeking truth from facts and actively researching new situations and solving new problems can we deepen the understanding of laws and open up the way forward to solve the two historical problems of “winning battles and never degenerating”.