On Xi's orders, Chinese military set to become 'world class'
16 Nov 2017 5:01 PM GMT
Beijing: Less than a month after President Xi Jinping began his second five-year term in office setting a new deadline for the PLA to complete its modernisation, the Chinese military has taken measures to become a "world-class" force in line with his vision, official media reported here.
China will basically complete modernisation of its national defence and armed forces by 2035 and fully build the army into a "world-class force" by the mid-21st century, Xi said in his report to the once-in-a-five-years Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) held here last month.
The CPC Congress endorsed a second five-year term for Xi as head of the party, presidency and the military.
Following this, the Central Military Commission (CMC) issued a guideline on November 5 to affirm the absolute leadership of the party over the army, requiring that troops be absolutely loyal, honest and reliable to Xi, who is also chairman of the CMC, a report by state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The CMC headed by Xi is the overall high command of the 2.3 million People's Liberation Army, the world's largest.
The CMC said the armed forces should deeply and comprehensively implement a system in which the chairman of the CMC has overall responsibility for the military. The system was added to the CPC Constitution at the Congress.
The top priority of maintaining the authority of the leadership core is to safeguard the CMC chairperson responsibility system, Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the CMC, wrote in the People's Daily
on Tuesday.
"In the face of profound and complex changes at home and abroad, along with fierce ideological struggles, it's a fundamental issue for our military to maintain its original nature, tenet and colour," Xu said in the article.
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