The Party's Vision for Building a Strong Military for a New Era

The Party's Vision for Building a Strong Military for a New Era

Efforts to build strong armed forces need to be guided by a forward-looking vision, and proceed on a solid theoretical basis. Since the Party’s 18th National Congress, Xi Jinping as the leader of the Party and commander-in-chief of the armed forces has proposed a series of major policy decisions as part of an overall strategy for building a strong military for a new era. He has in particular laid out our Party’s vision that guides us on a new journey to remake our military, an unprecedented effort of historic significance that will propel our military to further greatness.

The report to the 19th CPC National Congress underlines the importance of this vision to the efforts to strengthen our defense capability. The vision calls for:

• affirming the leadership role of the Party in building a strong, well-disciplined military able to fight and win major wars;

• keeping a strategic focus on combat capability and readiness, innovative measures, institutional strengthening, development of a more efficient, integrated command structure, and military-civilian integration;

• staying true to the founding mission of the people’s armed forces;

• implementing further reform;

• promoting scientific and technological innovation to upgrade our fighting power;

• enhancing rule-based governance of the military;

• staying focused on what the military is supposed to do without being distracted; and

• implementing an effective talent strategy.

This vision is an important component of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It answers the basic questions about under whose command our people’s armed forces should be, how the Party’s leadership role – which is the soul of the military – can be strengthened, why we have to build a strong military and how we can achieve this goal, and what we should be prepared for and how we can strengthen combat capability. It enriches our Party’s guiding principles for governance of the military, and guides us toward new horizons.

新时代党的强军思想

建设一支强大的人民军队，必须有先进思想引领、科学理论指导。中共十八大以来，习近平作为党的领袖、军队统帅，着眼实现中国梦强军梦，作出一系列重大决策部署，创立了新时代党的强军思想，引领军队开启强军兴军新征程，推动军队面貌发生前所未有的历史性变化。中共十九大报告明确提出，确立新时代党的强军思想在国防和军队建设中的指导地位。这一思想主要包含以下内容：一是“建设一支听党指挥、能打胜仗、作风优良的人民军队”的强军目标；二是更加注重聚焦实战，更加注重创新驱动，更加注重体系建设，更加注重集约高效，更加注重军民融合等“五个更加注重”战略指导；三是永葆人民军队的本色初心；四是向深化国防和军队改革要动力；五是坚持向科技创新要战斗力；六是全面提升国防和军队建设的法治化水平；七是始终聚焦军队的主责主业；八是夯实强军兴军的人才支撑。

新时代党的强军思想，是习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的重要组成部分，深刻回答了新时代“人民军队听谁指挥、怎样铸牢军魂”“为什么强军、怎样强军”、“打什么仗、怎样打胜仗”等基本问题，丰富发展了中国共产党建军治军的思想和方针原则，指引着人民军队的强军新征程。