China’s military focuses on beating ‘strong enemies’ in Deng Xiaoping commemorations
- 120th anniversary events focused on Deng’s military reforms but, unlike the 1980s, Beijing is now far more concerned about security threats
The Chinese military has pledged to stay alert to potential risks and is focused on making sure it can “win against strong enemies”, during the commemorations to mark Deng Xiaoping’s 120th anniversary.
At one such event on Thursday, President Xi Jinping told the military to improve its “strategic ability to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests”.
Xi said Deng had highlighted the need to build the People’s Liberation Army into a strong, modernised and well-organised force, and to have fewer but better troops.
Deng had started advocating for this approach in 1975, while Mao Zedong was still alive, and once in power he cut the PLA’s numbers by one million.
At a PLA commemoration on Monday, Miao Hua, a member of the Central Military Commission, the military’s top decision-making body, said: “In the new journey, we should … focus on strengthening capabilities to defeat strong enemies and opponents.”
On Wednesday an article in the official PLA Daily said Deng had made the strategic judgment that “world wars can be postponed or avoided” in the 1980s, but China now faced “great changes unseen in a century”.
