Jiang Zemin’s thinking on national defense and military development is Jiang Zemin’s systematic theory on China’s national defense and military development and military struggle under the new historical conditions. As an important part of the important thought of Three Represents and the inheritance and development of Mao Zedong’s military thinking and Deng Xiaoping’s thinking on military building in the new era, it is the guiding ideology for China’s national defense and military development under the new historical conditions.

I. Basic Content

Jiang Zemin’s thinking on national defense and military development focuses on the two historic tasks of being capable of winning and never degenerating, and scientifically analyzes and answers what kind of military will be built under the new historical conditions, how to build it, what kind of battles will be fought in the future and how to fight them by putting forward a series of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new judgments, and clarified the status and role, goals and tasks, guiding principles, general thinking, fundamental approaches, strategic steps, development motives, political guarantees etc. of national defense and military building under the new historical conditions, thereby forming a complete military theory system. The fundamental guideline that runs through Jiang Zemin’s thinking on national defense and military development is to unswervingly take the road of fewer but better troops with Chinese characteristics.

Planning the development of national defense and military from the perspective of the overall international strategy and national development

Jiang Zemin emphasized that we must stand at the forefront of the times, observe the world from a Marxist political perspective, and correctly assess the international environment of national security. After the end of the Cold War, the world situation has undergone tremendous and profound changes. The international tension tend to ease. The pursuit of peace, stability and development has become the common aspiration of people of all countries. The power of developing countries is growing; the relations between major powers are undergoing profound adjustment; some regional international organizations are playing an increasingly important role in international affairs, and multi-polarization is irresistible. World wars can be avoided for a long time to come, and a favorable international and neighborhood environment can be created.However, hegemonism and power politics still exist. Territorial, ethnic, religious and other complicated factors are at play. Local wars and armed conflicts occur from time to time. International terrorism activities intensify. The world is not peaceful, and uncertain factors affecting world peace and security are still on the rise. The world is peaceful and stable with tensions easing in general, but with local turmoil, tension and unrest, which is the basic trends of the international situation in the coming period. China’s security environment is generally sound, but there are also many insecurity factors. Therefore, while concentrating on economic development and accelerating development, we must maintain a high degree of vigilance, put the maintenance of national security, unity and development interests in a more prominent strategic position, and enhance China’s strategic capabilities. The military undertakes an important role and a sacred mission of safeguarding national security and development interests. From the perspective of the overall strategic situation, it is necessary to promote the modernization of national defense and the military in a planned and step-by-step manner, and strive to improve its ability to win and contain wars. Building a solid national defense is a strategic task of China’s modernization drive. It is necessary to stick to the policy of coordinated development of national defense and economy, and form a mechanism for mutual promotion and coordinated development of these two dimensions.

Fulfilling the two historical tasks of being capable of winning and never degenerating

Jiang Zemin pointed out that since the 1990s, major changes in the international and domestic environment have brought unprecedented impacts and challenges to the building of the people’s forces. High-tech warfare has become the basic form of modern warfare, which accentuates the people’s military’s insufficiency in fighting modern warfare, and it faces greater pressure to perform its functions of safeguarding national interests; the development of the domestic socialist market economy and the expansion of opening to the outside world mean a more complex environment and a more severe test for the people’s forces in upholding the nature, character and conduct of the people’s forces.Whether the PLA can win potential high-tech wars and whether it can always maintain the nature, character and conduct of the people’s forces are the two historical issues that the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC) are most concerned about in the military building under the new situation. Fulfilling the two historical tasks of winning and not degenerating is the solemn mission and historical responsibility of the people’s forces for the Party, the country, and the nation. It is both a realistic urgent issue and a long-term historical task. All officers and soldiers must make unremitting efforts in this regard with a strong sense of political responsibility and mission. Winning and not degenerating are a closely related and inseparable whole, and it is what the people’s forces are all about. To fulfill them, we must constantly explore the characteristics and laws of running the military under the new situation and of preparation for military struggle and national defense development and constantly enhance our ability to run and develop the military.

The Party’s absolute leadership over the military is the essential feature of the PLA

Jiang Zemin said that the absolute leadership of the CPC over the military is the fundamental principle of building the people’s forces, its unique political advantage and its essential feature. As an armed group that performs the Party’s political tasks, the PLA takes serving the people wholeheartedly as its purpose, including overthrowing the three big mountains (imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, which weighed like mountains on the backs of the Chinese people before liberation) and carrying out socialist revolution and construction. Upholding the Party’s absolute leadership over the military determines the nature and purpose of the people’s forces, and bears on the future and destiny of socialism and China’s long-term stability. Therefore, it has always been the primary issue in the development of the people’s forces.To uphold the Party’s absolute leadership over the military in the new historical period, we must resolutely resist the influence of erroneous viewpoints such as “de-Partyization of the military”, “depoliticization of the military” and “nationalization of the military” and adopt a series of fundamental systems to ensure that the Party firmly controls the military ideologically, politically and organizationally; strictly observe political discipline to ensure that all its actions always follow the command of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC. We should strengthen and improve Party building by closely centering around the central task of the military, and give full play to the core leadership role of Party committees at all levels in the military, the key role of Party branches and the vanguard and exemplary role of Party members. We must vigorously train and select outstanding young officers, and ensure that our weaponry is always in the hands of those who are reliable and loyal to the Party.

Actively promoting military reform with Chinese characteristics

Jiang Zemin said that the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in the world has brought both severe challenges and opportunities to China. As China is in a critical period of development, it can accelerate the realization of the strategic goal of modernizing its national defense and military in a favorable international security environment as long as the strategy is properly planned. To meet the challenges of RMA, an inevitable choice for the PLA is to actively promote military reform with Chinese characteristics which means proceeding from the new development trend of the RMA and China’s national and military conditions and taking the leapfrog development path of driving mechanization with mechanization and promoting informationization with mechanization, in a bid to build a strong, modernized and well-structured revolutionary military capable of winning the future informationized warfare. As the most important driving factor for the contemporary technological revolution and social change, informatization is also the essence and core of the RMA.At present, the people’s forces is in a special stage where mechanization has not yet been completed, so it is facing the dual historical tasks of mechanization and informatization. China does not necessarily have to go through the entire process of mechanization that the armed forces of developed countries has experienced before pursuing informatization. Instead, it should speed up the pace of informatization of the military while strengthening mechanization. It is necessary to maximize its advantages of the latecomers, avoid the detours that the military of developed countries has taken in informatization, and strive to catch up with the armed forces of developed countries. The fundamental goal of advancing military reform with Chinese characteristics is to gradually realize the informatization of national defense and the military in accordance with the 50-year three-step strategy for modernization drive, and win future informationized warfare.

Implementing the military strategy in the new era in military building

According to Jiang Zemin, military strategy is a governance approach and the fundamental guideline of military struggle and building and must be closely coordinated with the political, economic, and diplomatic aspects. As China’s “heirloom”, the military strategy of active defense not only inherits the tradition of the PLA, but also conforms to China’s current national and military conditions, which is why China can be proactive in politics and diplomacy. At the same time, this strategy should be made more relevant as the situation changes.At the beginning of 1993, Jiang Zemin presided over the formulation of the military strategy for the new era in accordance with the new changes in the international strategic environment and the form of warfare and combat style. This strategy identifies the basis of preparation for military struggle as winning local wars under the conditions of modern technology, especially high technology. It states that the building and work of the entire military, including military training, political work, logistics support, equipment-related work, and national defense scientific research, etc., must be planned, deployed and implemented under the military strategy in the new era so that our military can win the future local wars under modern technological conditions, particularly high-tech conditions. At the beginning of the 21st century, Jiang Zemin, based on the scientific judgment that high-tech warfare is essentially informationized warfare, emphasized that the context of military struggle preparation should be shifted from the industrial age to the information age and the improvement of informationized combat capabilities should be elevated to a more prominent position in the military strategy.To make overall planning for the military development under the guidance of the military strategy in the new era, we must focus on enhancing the people’s forces’ defense and combat capability against the backdrop of informatization. The building of the emergency mobile combat force should be prioritized, and the joint combat capability of the force under the condition of informatization should be improved. We should correctly handle the relationship between the preparations for military struggle and the long-term military modernization, the relationship between the main strategic direction and other strategic directions, and the relationship between the development of key projects and the development of the system building, so that the preparation for military struggle can lead and drive the overall national defense and military modernization.

Comprehensively making the military more revolutionary, modernized and well-structured in accordance with the general requirement of being qualified politically and competent militarily, having fine conduct, maintaining strict discipline and being assured of adequate logistical support.

As Jiang Zemin said, the military building is a whole in which its revolutionary, modernized and well-structured development are interrelated and inseparable. Only when all these aspects cooperate with and promote each other can the smooth progress of military building be ensured; and only when all aspects progress together can the overall level of military building be improved. In accordance with the general requirements of being politically qualified, militarily competent, excellent in work style, strict in discipline, and strong in security, or “Five Sentences”, the overall military building must be strengthened, the goals of making the military more revolutionary, modernized and well-structured must be implemented in all tasks of the military, and the PLA must be built into a disciplined force for peace and justice who can stand the test and can complete its mission and task no matter what the circumstances. The “Five Sentences” generally requires that all aspects of the military’s work be brought into the track of revolutionary, modernized and well-structured development, so that the pursuit of the general goal of military building becomes a regular practice of the military, and the “Five Sentences” serves as the criterion for achieving this general goal. The key in implementing the “Five Sentences” is taking the improvement of combat effectiveness as the starting point and the ultimate goal, especially at the grassroots level.

Always prioritizing the reinforcement of political foundations and the buttressing of its ideological commitment in military building

As Jiang Zemin put it, the reinforcement of political foundations and the buttressing of its ideological commitment is the core of the making the people’s forces more revolutionary, and an important prerequisite and reliable guarantee for it to remain invincible. Reinforcement of political foundations and the buttressing of ideological commitment of the military is an important foundation for military training, logistical support and modernization. Putting ideological and political development above all military building endeavors is a requirement from the strategic perspective of the overall work of the Party, the state and the military. The mission of ideological and political development in the new era is to provide a strong spiritual driving force for “winning” and a reliable political guarantee for “not degenerating”. In the midst of the complex international environment and profound social changes, the military must always be under the absolute leadership of the Party, and the nature of the people’s forces should never change.  The foundation of ideological and political construction is to arm all officers and soldiers with scientific theories, especially the theoretical innovations of the Party. The Party’s theory, line and program define the goals, tasks, guidelines, principles, and fundamental requirements of the military’s ideological and political construction. Under the new situation, it is necessary to study and master Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and the Theory of Three Represents as the primary task in this regard. We must firmly carry out ideological and political education as the central link, extensively conduct education on patriotism and dedication, education on revolutionary outlook on life, education on respecting officers and care for soldiers, and education on hard work, strengthen the revolutionary ideals and beliefs of officers and soldiers, and ensure that the Party controls the military ideologically and politically. We must vigorously strengthen the military’s ideological and moral cultivation, and strive to make its cultural and ideological development lead the whole society. We must proceed from the characteristics of the times in strengthening and improving ideological and political work under the new situation, enhance its relevance, effectiveness, and initiative, and continuously promote innovation and development in this field.

Implementing the strategy of building the military through science and technology, and strengthening the quality of the military

Jiang Zemin said that with the rapid progress of science and technology, as well as the accelerated development of the RMA and the unprecedented effectiveness of weapon systems, great changes have taken place in the components and application methods of military power, and the outcome of war is increasingly decided by the quality of the military. Improving the quality of the military is a distinctive feature of the RMA; competing for quality advantages is an important development trend in world military competition. Taking the quality development as the basic guideline for military modernization and taking the road of fewer but better troops with Chinese characteristics is the only correct choice for modernizing and building the people’s forces.The key to improving the quality of the military is to implement the strategy of strengthening the military through science and technology, and relying on scientific and technological progress to realize the transformation of the military building from a quantity-and-scale model to that of quality and efficiency. We should place the improvement of combat effectiveness through scientific and technological progress in the strategic position of national defense and military development, enhance China’s military scientific and technological strength, comprehensively improve the scientific and technological content of military building, and continuously improve the scientific and technological level of military weapons and equipment; adjust and reform the unreasonable institutional establishment, so that the size, structure and command system of the military can adapt to the requirements of local wars under the conditions of modern technology, especially high technology; carry out scientific and technological training, improve the scientific and technological quality of the majority of officers and soldiers, earnestly shift the basis for the growth of the military’s combat effectiveness to scientific and technological progress, and improve the overall combat capability of the military under high-tech conditions.

Cultivating a large number of high-quality new-type military talents

Jiang Zemin said that talent is the foundation of building and running the military. Without a large number of high-quality talents, it would be impossible to master new weapons and equipment, to create and use new tactics, and it is impossible to win future wars. The more modernized the military is, the greater the demand for high-quality new-type military personnel. As talent training is a long-term task and a top priority, we must always attack importance to it. Talents cultivation must precede  equipment development. To train and cultivate a large number of high-quality new-type military personnel, we must have considerable investment as a guarantee, and make personnel development one of the key areas of military investment. To meet the needs of military modernization and future wars, efforts should be made to cultivate a large number of high-quality inter-disciplinary commanding talents, think-tank-type staff talents, and expert-type scientific and technological talents. Talent strategy project should be carried out with focus on the cultivation of commanding officers, staff, scientists, technical experts and non-commissioned officers.We should regard education as the basic work of personnel training and place it in a more important position. Talents should be cultivated and trained in practice, as practice is the best classroom for acquiring knowledge, and posts are the basic platform for improving quality. Military academies are the main channel for cultivating military talents, and college education must be placed in a strategic position of priority development; a new system of colleges and universities must be established; the reform of college education should be promoted; and the quality of personnel training must be improved. Cadets cultivation should gradually shift from the path of combining the military’s own training and national education training to selecting high-quality talents from a wider range. In selecting and appointing military officers, we should see whether they have both ability and political integrity, whether they are meritorious, and whether it revolutionizes itself, selects younger officers, enhance training and promote professionalism. In particular, we must attach great importance to the training and selection of young officers, so that more outstanding young officers will take up leadership positions, and there will be successors in military building.

Speeding up the pace of weapons and equipment modernization

Jiang Zemin said that the increasingly sophisticated technology of weapons and equipment is an important trend in world military development. In modern warfare, the side with the edge in high-tech weapons and equipment is more likely to gain the initiative, while the backward one may be passively attacked. It is an urgent task to improve the modernization level of the weapons and equipment of the people’s forces and enhance the high-tech content of the weapons and equipment. We must put the development of weapons and equipment in a more prominent position, and do everything possible to improve the weapons and equipment; make a scientific weapon and equipment development strategy in accordance with the goals of “preparing for emergencies, providing guarantees for local wars, having means for deterrence, and building foundations for development”; follow the development trend of military science and technology in the world, aim to develop cutting-edge core technologies of weaponry and equipment, and while attaching importance to the development of mechanized weaponry and equipment, accelerate the development of informationized weaponry and equipment, and strive to achieve leapfrog development of weaponry and equipment development.We must focus on the needs of military struggle, highlight the priorities of weapons and equipment development, and focus on developing “killer weapons”. We must attach importance to the development of supporting systems for weapons and equipment, and build the equipment system; be self-reliant, focus on independent innovation in the development of weapons and equipment, and at the same time use all available resources, learn from all experience that can be applied, and selectively introduce key equipment and technologies; strengthen the centralized and unified leadership and management in this regard, establish and improve the competition, evaluation, supervision and incentive mechanism that adapts to the characteristics of the socialist market economy and the laws in this respect, and deepen the reform of the national defense science, technology and industry system; vigorously carry forward the spirit of “Two Bombs, One Satellite” (Two Bombs refers to the atomic bomb and the intercontinental ballistic missile, while One Satellite refers to the artificial satellite), and accelerate the development of our weapons and equipment.

Blazing a new path of military modernization with less investment and higher efficiency

As Jiang Zemin said, with the reform and opening up and the development of the market economy, China’s composite national strength would increase, and defense expenditure would also increase accordingly. China should not follow the footsteps of developed countries in terms of defense spending. National defense and military development must take a development path with less investment and higher efficiency. ① Implementing the policy of building an military through diligence and thrift, and carry forward the spirit of hard work. The military must consciously shows understanding for the difficulties facing China, establish a mentality of “tightening our belt” for a long time to come, promote hard work, practice thrift in everything we do, and properly spend each and every penny. ② Focusing on key issues of military expenditure and improving military economic benefits. When the contradiction between supply and demand is difficult to be alleviated, it is necessary to focus on the key issues of support, and on the basis of ensuring the continuous improvement of the life of the troops, we should concentrate financial and material resources more on equipment development, key troops and important directions. We must learn and apply new ideas, new knowledge, new technologies and new means of scientific management, strive to explore management theories and methods with the characteristics of the people’s forces, and improve efficiency through management; adapt to the development requirements of the socialist market economy, improve the methods for preparing for and supplying materials, and increase the efficiency of the use of funds and materials. ③  Establishing and improving an integrated logistic support system for the three armed services, for both military and civilian purposes and for both peacetime and wartime. We must break the boundaries of the three armed services’ self-contained systems, firmly implement joint logistics and joint support, and unify all the materials and service support of the three services, so as to realize the integration of the three services; break the boundary between the military and localities, get rid of as much as possible the support institutions and functions that have little to do with military functions, rely on and utilize the national economic system to the greatest extent, and increase the scope and degree of commercialization of the military’s logistical support, especially life support. ④ The military must stop all business activities. Generally speaking, the military should be funded by the government rather than pursue self-development and self-improvement. We should strengthen logistics development and reform and improve comprehensive support capabilities. According to the operational needs of modern technology, especially under high-tech conditions, we should strengthen the building of logistics and technical support forces, adjust the structure and distribution of combat readiness material reserves, construct strategic rear bases, and develop all-round support capabilities, especially capability of comprehensive emergency support.

Governing the military with strict discipline and in accordance with the law

As Jiang Zemin put it, without a well-structured military, there will be no military modernization. To make the military more well-structured, we must uphold the rule of law. The military must adapt to the development of China’s democratic and legal system, conscientiously implement the policy of governing the military according to the law, and bring national defense and military building into the track of the legal system. To govern the military according to the law means to guarantee the absolute leadership of the Party over the military institutionally and legally, and to make the principle of “the Party commands the gun” more stable, authoritative and normative and become the commitment at the national level through legal procedures, so that the Party leadership is unified with law-based government service; it also means to enshrine the people’s military’s successful experience in law to make the military more revolutionary, modernized, and well-structured.We must pay close attention to military legislation, and gradually establish a military legal system that meets the development requirements of the socialist market economy, conforms to the laws of modern military development, and reflects the nature and fine traditions of the people’s forces. We must resolutely uphold the authority and seriousness of military regulations and rules, improve the ability and awareness of leading officers at all levels to obey the law, and enable them to educate, guide and manage troops and coordinate and handle internal and external relations and various contradiction based on laws and regulations. Strict requirements and management are the main approaches to make the military more well-structured. The better and stricter the management and requirements, the higher the combat effectiveness of the troops.The whole military must strengthen the development of discipline, heighten the awareness of discipline, develop a fine conduct of following all orders and prohibitions without fail, and guarantee a smooth chain of command. Leading officers at all levels must play an exemplary role of obeying orders, strictly abiding by discipline, and strictly enforcing rules and regulations. They must show concern for soldiers through care, love, and education and follow the guidance of scientific theories, combine the experience and approaches of management accumulated over a long period of time with modern management science to make management more scientific and effective.

The driving force of military modernization is reform

Jiang Zemin pointed out that reform is a powerful driving force for military building, and innovation is the soul of the military’s progress. The world’s military science and technology are changing with each passing day, and the struggle in the military field is becoming increasingly fierce. The military must seek development and breakthroughs through reform and innovation in every aspect of its work. ① Innovating and developing military theory with Chinese characteristics. It is necessary to uphold the guidance of Mao Zedong’s military thought and Deng Xiaoping’s thinking on military building in the new era, adapt to the general trend of world military transformation, inherit the excellent military heritage, actively learn from the experience of foreign military forces, and develop military science with Chinese characteristics. While continuing to strengthen basic research, we must devote more attention to studying practical problems, so as to serve the military’ building and its preparation for struggle.② Adjusting and reforming the establishment. We should proceed from the functions, tasks and characteristics of the military, follow the principle of being “streamlined, combined and efficient”, focus on solving the outstanding contradictions and major problems faced by the military’s building and operations, reform and improve the military system and establishment, and build the PLA into a modernized and well-structured revolutionary military with moderate scale, reasonable structure, lean organization, flexible command and strong combat effectiveness. ③ Adjusting and improving the policy system. It is necessary to adapt to the requirements of reform and opening up and the development of the socialist market economy, focus on the reform of the military service system, the non-commissioned officer system, the officer and personnel system, the wage and welfare allowance system, and the commercialization of logistical support, etc. The internal relations of the military should be adjusted and standardized, and policies and systems conducive to motivating officers and soldiers should be established and improved, so as to enhance its appeal and cohesion. ④ Actively and steadily promoting reform. In light of the current national and military conditions, we must correctly handle the relationship between inheriting fine traditions and reform and innovation, between learning from foreign military experience and maintaining our own characteristics, between military reform and the reform of the entire country, and between deepening reform and maintaining military stability. The reform and development of the military should be carried out actively and steadily on the premise of ensuring national security and military stability.

Relying on the people to develop the military and national defense

According to Jiang Zemin, national defense and military building are the common cause of the whole Party and the people of the whole country, and we must rely on the people to build the military and national defense. No matter how weapons and equipment develop, or how the form of warfare changes, people’s war provides important assurance for our Party to defeat the enemy. In the future, information warfare will be a contest of composite national strength based on the confrontation of military forces, and it is even more necessary to give full play to the power of people’s war. To Win the information war, prepare for military struggle and build up the armed forces, we must unswerving uphold the idea that China’s national defense is the responsibility of all Chinese people.

① We must attach importance to national defense education among all the people and heighten national defense awareness. National defense education should highlight the core content of patriotism, focus on preparation for adversity and national self-esteem and pride, so that all people can firmly develop a sense of honor and responsibility for caring about national defense, building national defense, and defending national security. ② We must attach great importance to the building of national defense reserve forces while strengthening the military building, so as to maintain less troops in peacetime and have adequate troops at hand in wartime. The building of the national defense reserve force must adapt to the characteristics of future military struggles and the development requirements of the socialist market economy and pay attention to improving its quality, the organizational system and related policy systems. Reserve troops and militia must maintain an appropriate scale, optimize their structure, improve their ability to be mobilized quickly and strengthen their training, so as to be able to fight when they are called upon.③ We should further adjust and improve the national defense mobilization system and improve the national defense mobilization capability in accordance with the principles of combining peacetime needs with wartime needs, integrating military with civilian purposes and combining military efforts with civilian support. ④ We must strengthen the unity of the military, the government, the military and the people which is the source for the people’s forces to be invincible and an important factor in maintaining social stability. The military and civilians across the country must protect this unity like we protect our eyes, and consolidate and develop a new type of military-government and military-civilian relationship that shares a common destiny.Party committees, governments and the people at all levels must care about and support military building. The military should carry forward the glorious tradition of supporting the government and the people, and actively participate in and support the country’s economic development.

II. Formation and Development

Jiang Zemin is the core of the third-generation central collective leadership of the CPC, the main founder of the important Theory of Three Represents, and the main leader of the PLA. In June 1989, Jiang was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth CPC Central Committee. In November, Jiang was appointed chairman of the CMC. In April 1990, he was elected chairman of the CMC. During the 15 years when he was in charge of the work of the CMC, with the revolutionary spirit and courage of a Marxist statesman and strategist, he made a series of strategic decisions on national defense and military building, and solved a series of outstanding contradictions and problems in the military development by directing a series of major military operations, which enabled the people’s forces to withstand the severe test of political struggle, military struggle and the struggle against serious natural disasters, and made remarkable achievements in making the military more revolutionary, modernized and standardized.Jiang combined Mao Zedong’s military thinking and Deng Xiaoping’s thinking on military building in the new era with new military practice. In light of the characteristics of the times, social and historical conditions and the development and changes of China’s security environment, Jiang analyzed the new situation facing China’s national defense and military building and new tasks from a strategic perspective and summed up the experience of the CPC in leading the modernization of national defense and the military, thereby putting forward a series of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new judgments on strengthening national defense and military building, and creating Jiang Zemin’s thinking on national defense and military building with the characteristics of the times.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in response to the major changes in the international strategic landscape, the increase of local wars under high-tech conditions, the development of China’s socialist market economy, and the wider opening up, Jiang clearly stated in a series of important speeches that we must unswervingly uphold the Party’s absolute leadership over the military, and carry forward the fine traditions and fine conduct of the people’s forces; strengthen the all-round military building in line with the requirements of “politically qualified, military-strengthened, well-mannered, disciplined, and powerfully guaranteed”; prepare for shifting the basis of future military struggles to winning local wars under the conditions of modern technology, especially high-tech technologies. Such speeches including “Continuing to Move Forward along the Path Pioneered by the Older Generation of Revolutionaries to Improve the Military Building and Reform “ (1989), “Thinking on Military Strategy” (1990), “The Military Should be politically qualified, military-strengthened, well-mannered, disciplined, and powerfully guaranteed” (1990), “The Historical Responsibilities of the Military Under the New Situation” (1991), “Vigorously Developing National Defense Science and Technology” (1991), “Speech at the Enlarged Conference of the Central Military Commission” (1992), “International Situation and Military Strategic Guidelines” (1993).

The mid-1990s witnessed the rapidly developing RMA around the world, the vicious expansion of “Taiwan independence” forces with the support and connivance of hegemonism which led to the increasingly severe situation in the Taiwan Strait, as well as the new challenges brought by reform and opening up and the market economy to military building. Against this backdrop, Jiang Zemin focused on fulfilling the two historical tasks of winning and not degenerating and emphasized in a series of important speeches that we should place ideological and political development over all other military buildings; implement the strategy of strengthening the military through science and technology, and actively promote the transformation of military building from a quantity-and-scale model to that of quality and efficiency, and from a manpower-intensive one to a technology-intensive one; meet the challenges of world military development with the spirit of reform and innovation, arm the entire military with correct ideology and modern science and technology, especially high-tech knowledge, and actively explore the the characteristics and laws of military governance under the conditions of development of the socialist market economy and opening to the outside world; strengthen discipline as the core content, and govern the military according to the law and with strict discipline; follow the three-step development strategy to realize the modernization of national defense and the military, etc. Such speeches include “Ideological and Political Development Must be Put in the First Place in the Building of the Whole Military” (1994), “Upholding the Party’s Absolute Leadership over the Military” (1995), “Passing on the Spirit of the Long March” (1996), “Meeting the Challenges of World Military Development with the Spirit of Reform and Innovation” (1996), “Striving to Explore the Characteristics and Laws of Military Governance under the Conditions of Socialist Market Economy and Opening-up” (1996), “Speech in Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army”, “Speech on National Defense and Military Development” (1997), “Strengthening National Defense and Military Building is the Basic Guarantee for National Security and Modernization” (1997) and “Achieving the Strategic Goal of Cross-Century Development of National Defense and Military Modernization” (1997).

At the turn of the century, in the face of the accelerated development of the RMA in the world, the accelerated transformation of war patterns to informationized warfare, and the more complex and volatile national security environment, in a series of important reports and speeches, Jiang Zemin further clarified the strategic goals of national defense and military modernization as building an informationized military and winning informationized warfare, proposed to actively promote military reform with Chinese characteristics, and strive to complete the two historical tasks of mechanization and informationization of the people’s forces, realize the major strategic thinking of leapfrog development of military modernization, and conscientiously implement the important Theory of Three Represents, correctly understand and handle the relationship between national defense and military building in seven aspects, speed up the development of weapons and equipment with “killer” as the focus, train a new type of high-quality military personnel in large numbers, address joint operations of various services and arms, and prepare for military struggles, etc. which have further enriched and developed the Party’s military theory. Such speeches include “Blazing a Trail of Military Modernization with Less Investment and Higher Efficiency” (1998), “Experience of Military Development in the Past 20 Years” (1998), “Review and Summary of the Work of the Central Military Commission in the Past 10 Years” (1999), “Mechanization and Informatization Are the Two Historical Tasks of Our Military Building” (2000), “Creating a Favorable Strategic Situation and Enhancing the National Strategic Capability” (2001), “Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Opening a New Chapter for the Cause of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” (2002), “On Military Reform with Chinese Characteristics” (2002), etc.    

III. Scientific value

Jiang Zemin’s thinking on national defense and military development is the extension of the important Theory of Three Represents in the military field. As a part of the theoretical system, it is in line with Mao Zedong’s military thinking and Deng Xiaoping’s thinking on military building in the new era the and is the product of the new historical conditions, a major achievement of the adapting Marxist military theory to the Chinese context and the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the entire Party and the entire military. It emancipates the mind, seeks truth from facts, keeps pace with the times, and has a keen observation and insightful grasp of the contemporary world and the general trend of China’s military development. Based on the new requirements for national defense and military development in the contemporary world and China’s development and changes, it puts forward a series of new ideas, new theories, new judgments, and new strategies for strengthening national defense and the armed forces, so it is very creative. It holds that we should proceed from the national and military conditions of contemporary China in everything we do, and constantly study new situations, solve new problems, summarize new experiences, and explore new laws, so it is action-oriented.Jiang Zemin’s thinking on national defense and military development have profoundly revealed the characteristics and laws of contemporary China’s national defense development, the characteristics and laws of building and running the military under the conditions of reform, opening up and the development of the socialist market economy, and the characteristics and laws of preparation for future wars and military struggles, address the major tasks of actively promoting military reform with Chinese characteristics and ensuring that the people’s forces will win and not degenerate under the historical conditions that the RMA is in full swing and China’s socialist market economy is developing in depth. Thus, it further enriches and develops Marxist military theory and opens up a new realm for the development of the Party’s military theory. As a scientific guide for China’s national defense and military development under the new situation, it has great practical guiding significance and far-reaching historical significance for strengthening and promoting the modernization of China’s national defense and the armed forces and preparing for military struggles. Jiang Zemin’s thinking on strengthening national defense and the armed forces adopts the scientific world outlook and methodology of Marxism, and unifies advancing with the times and seeking truth from facts, the global vision and Chinese characteristics, innovation and scientific attitude, and grasping the overall situation and paying attention to the key tasks, thus having important world outlook and methodological significance for thinking and planning national defense and military development oriented towards the future.