Xi wants "capable, brave and virtuous" army "with souls"

A grand gathering in celebration of the 90th birthday of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, August 1, 2017. [Photo: China Plus]

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for a new generation of "capable, brave and virtuous" armymen "with soul" in order to build a strong military.

Calling political work the "lifeline" of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Xi said the PLA must have ironclad faith, beliefs, discipline and responsibility, and retain its nature and goal as the people's army.

He also called on the PLA to strengthen itself through reform, develop itself with science and technology, and govern itself according to law in order to further modernize China's national defense and its military in an all-round manner.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing a grand gathering in celebration of the 90th founding anniversary of the PLA.

The army must unswervingly deepen national defense and military reform, and tackle institutional barriers, structural contradictions and policy issues that constrain national defense and army building, Xi said.

The PLA must improve and further develop the socialist military system with Chinese characteristics, and step up efforts to build a modern military force system with Chinese characteristics that is capable of winning information-based warfare and efficiently carrying out the military's due missions and tasks, he said.

The strategy of developing the army with science and technology should be fully implemented, Xi added, calling on the PLA to stick to the strategic base point of independent innovation.

The army should accelerate development of strategic, frontier and disruptive technologies in order to allow science and technology to play a bigger role in the PLA's capacity building and the advancement of its military capability.

It should also enhance the awareness of rule of law throughout the PLA, step up efforts to build a military legal system with Chinese characteristics, and speed up a fundamental transformation of the military governance system, Xi said.