Russian media focus: China advances modernization of its military and national defense!
By 2035, basic modernization of national defense and the armed forces will be achieved—marked by four major modernizations.
On July 31, Russia's TASS and Sputnik news agencies cited CCTV reports stating that China will advance the modernization of national defense and its armed forces.
Strategic timeline (the "new three-step" plan):
By 2027, achieve the goal of building a strong military for the centenary of the People's Liberation Army;
By 2035, basically realize modernization of national defense and the armed forces;
Mid-century this century: Build the people's armed forces into a world-class military.
China adheres to a defensive national defense policy, never seeks hegemony, does not engage in arms races, and does not target any third party.
Specific standards for modernization:
The Chinese official core definition: By 2035, basic modernization of national defense and the armed forces will be achieved, marked by four key modernizations:
Modernization of military theory, modernization of military organizational structure, modernization of military personnel, and modernization of weapons and equipment.
Meanwhile, combat effectiveness remains the fundamental and sole criterion for testing all construction efforts.
1. Modernization of military theory.
Develop war theories, strategic theories, and joint operations theories adapted to intelligent warfare, featuring Chinese characteristics and forward-looking perspectives;
Enable anticipation of technological changes and evolution in warfare forms, guiding equipment development, military reform, and operational planning;
Establish a comprehensive military scientific research system capable of continuously generating advanced operational concepts (such as unmanned operations, full-domain joint operations, and new-domain, new-type confrontations).
2. Modernization of military organizational structure.
Improve the joint operations command system to enable efficient multi-service integration;
Optimize force structure: reduce traditional combat forces, expand new-domain, new-type combat capabilities (space, cyberspace, electronic warfare, unmanned systems, long-range precision strike forces);
Modernize military management systems, ensure smooth cross-military and civilian coordination, and enable efficient operation of an integrated national strategic system;
Establish mechanisms capable of rapidly adapting to technological iterations and changes in operational styles.
3. Modernization of military personnel.
Build four core talent groups: joint operations command personnel, personnel for new-type combat forces, national defense science and technology innovation talents, and strategic management talents;
Ensure that military personnel’s knowledge structures and professional capabilities match the demands of informationized and intelligent warfare;
Mature a tripartite military talent development system with well-established mechanisms for talent selection, training, and retention.
4. Modernization of weapons and equipment (the most closely watched aspect among the public).
Integrated development of mechanization, informatization, and intelligence;
Mechanization: fully established mobility, firepower, and protection platform systems (China has largely achieved this overall);
Informatization: full-domain communication, reconnaissance, command, and precision strike interoperability, enabling integrated networked operations;
Intelligence: large-scale deployment of unmanned platforms, AI-assisted decision-making, and autonomous collaborative combat systems.
Key equipment must be independently controllable; achieve original innovation in national defense science and technology, and break through strategic and disruptive frontier technologies;
Build a complete equipment system with balanced high-low tiers, short- and long-range coordination, offensive and defensive capabilities, and full-domain applicability, addressing systemic weaknesses.
No publicly available quantitative hard metrics exist.
China will not disclose publicly: number of aircraft carriers, scale of fighter jets, missile range, or military expenditure ratio—these so-called “benchmark thresholds”.
Modernization is a system-level standard, not a mere competition over individual weapon counts.
One cannot judge modernization level solely based on the strength of equipment.
If equipment is advanced but command systems lag, personnel are insufficient, and operational theories are outdated, the military still cannot be considered modern.
System integration capability remains the core benchmark.
All construction ultimately converges on one point: the ability to effectively win wars and deter various security threats.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1872269649714180/
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