The Tasks of the Era: "Three-Ensurances"

Three-Ensurances principle aims to fully guarantee that our army is always the people's army under the absolute leadership of the Party, ideologically, politically and organizationally, as well as guarantee the scientific development of national defense and army building, and the effective fulfillment of our army's historical mission in the new stage of the new century. The themes of the times to be resolved in the ideological and political construction of the army in the new stage of the 21st century proposed by Hu Jintao, reflects the new requirements for the ideological and political construction of the army due to changes in situation and tasks. The topic of the times in ideological and political construction of the army is a concentrated reflection of major theoretical and practical issues of ideological and political construction under certain historical periods and historical conditions. In the new stage of the new century, the struggle in the field of international politics and ideology and culture has become more intense, new changes have taken place in the national security environment, and the historical tasks of the Party and the country, and new and higher demands have been placed on the ideological and political construction of the army. Based on this, Hu Jintao proposed the problem of “Three Guarantees” to be solved in ideological and political construction of the army in the new stage of new century at the Plenary Meeting of the Delegation of the PLA during the 2nd Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress. The essence of the topic of the times of “Three Guarantees” implies that: Firstly, the fundamental principle of adhering to the Party’s absolute leadership over the army and the fundamental purpose of the people’s army must be taken as the fundamental starting point for ideological and political construction, and the army must always maintain its firm and correct political direction; Secondly, it is required to adhere to taking the scientific development concept as an important guideline for national defense and army building, and strive to improve the scientific development level of national defense and army building; Thirdly, it is required to firmly focus on the effective implementation of the historical mission of the people's army in the new stage of new century, strengthen ideological and political construction, and provide reliable political guarantee, strong spiritual motivation and strong talent support for the army to fulfill its mission. The “Three Guarantees” is a closely linked organic whole, which runs through the whole process of comprehensively advancing the revolutionization, modernization, and regularization of the army, and is unified in the great practice of consolidating national defense and strengthening the army.

Guaranteeing that the army has always been the people's army under the absolute leadership of the Party, will provide correct political direction and a solid ideological and political foundation for promoting scientific development and fulfilling historical missions; guaranteeing the scientific development of national defense and army building will provide reliable guarantee and strong support for better adhering to our army's nature and purpose and fulfilling its historical mission under the new situation; guaranteeing the effective fulfillment of our army’s historical missions in the new stage of the new century, is not only a manifestation of our army’s nature and purpose under new historical conditions, but also a huge traction for the scientific development of national defense and army building. The “Three Guarantees” has accurately grasped the stage characteristics of army building, made a scientific summary of the topic of the times in ideological and political construction of the army in the new stage of the new century, and produced a huge leading and promoting role in the ideological and political construction of the army. It inherits the important thoughts of the three generations of the central leadership of the CPC on the ideological and political construction of the army, adheres to the fundamental principles and fine traditions of the ideological and political construction of the people's army, endows the ideological and political construction with new era connotations, and realizes the inheritance and development of the guiding theory for ideological and political construction of the army, which is the result of Marxist military guiding theory advancing with the times.