Double Historical Tasks of Mechanization and Informationization

In December 2000, in response to the contemporary new military revolution, Jiang Zemin proposed in his speech at the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission that it is necessary to work hard to complete the dual historical tasks of mechanization and informatization in army building, and achieve leapfrog development of military modernization. This mission is an important part of the "three-step" strategic concept of the army and national defense building, namely, to gradually realize the informatization of national defense and army in the first half of the 21st century. In November 2002, the Report of the 16th CPC National Congress and the White Paper on “China's National Defense in 2002” issued by China in December clearly elaborated on this historical task. In 2012, the 18th CPC National Congress further emphasized: “According to the ‘three-step’ strategic concept for the modernization of national defense and the army, we should step up to complete the dual historical tasks of mechanization and informatization, strive to basically achieve mechanization by 2020, and make significant progress in informatization.”

The new military revolution in the contemporary world is essentially a revolution of military informatization, and informatization is becoming a multiplier of the military’s combat effectiveness. The Chinese army is in a special stage when the mechanization task has not yet been completed and at the same time it has to work hard to transition to informatization. The strategic goal of building an informatized army is to achieve the leap-forward development of the Chinese army. It is required to start from the national and military conditions of China and correctly handle the relationship between mechanization and informatization. It is required to follow the national trend of accelerated development of the national economy and social informatization and accelerate the army building while strengthening the mechanization of the army. Adhere to the mechanization-based and informatization-oriented development, driving mechanization with informatization, promoting informatization with mechanization, and strive to promote the compound development and organic integration of mechanization and informatization. To realize the dual historical tasks of mechanization and informatization, is in essence to take building the informationized army as the strategic goal, focus on the development trend of modern science and technology and informatized warfare, develop forward thinking, continuously innovate, and realize the overall transformation of the army building. Completely renovate the weapons and equipment, organizational structure, military theory, military training, and logistics support of the army in accordance with the requirements of informatization, accelerate the transformation from mechanized and semi-mechanized to informatized, and strive to build a modern army capable of winning the informatization warfare in the future. The compound development of mechanization and informatization is an unprecedented exploration and practice of the Chinese army under the new tide of world military revolution. In this process, it is necessary to combine the successful experience and practices of developed countries with the focus on adhering to their own characteristics and taking their own road of innovation, and lay a solid foundation for the realization of the compound development of mechanization and informatization.