First Published: In Beijing
Red Flag, in Chinese, No. 15, 1 August 1984, pages 2-8.
Source of the translation: Foreign Broadcast
Information Service, China Report: Red Flag No. 15, 1 August 1984.
(JPRS-CRF-84-018), 3 October 1984, pages 1-13. A publication of Joint
Publications Research Service, Arlington (VA), USA.
Transcription/HTML/Markup for marxists.org: January
2024.
A powerful trend of reforms is sweeping across all China with the force of a thunderbolt. China is marching amid reforms, and so is our army. All officers and men of the PLA are full of enthusiasm for building a Chinese-type modernized, regularized, and revolutionary army to greet the 35th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, and the 57th anniversary of the founding of the army.
Strengthening the building of a modernized army is a basic task of our army during the new historical period. It is also a matter of primary importance for safeguarding the security of the motherland and defending the four modernizations. The entire party and people throughout the country are paying a good deal of attention to this matter. Over the past 35 years since the founding of the People's Republic, our army has followed a tortuous course of development. We are glad to see that since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee and especially since Comrade Deng Xiaoping took charge of the work of the Military Commission, we have brought order out of chaos and carried out reforms to do away with outdated things and develop new things, so that a new, vigorous situation has emerged in the building of the army. The ideological and political work and military training of our troops have been enlivened to a greater extent and there has been new improvement in the military and administrative areas and in the equipment of our troops. This has strengthened our troops' ability to adapt themselves to modern warfare. Our successes in carrying out combined operations maneuvers between the various kinds of services, in launching long-range carrier rockets and launching carrier rockets from submarines, and our victory in the self-defense battles against Vietnam have fully shown the new achievements in developing China's PLA under the new historical conditions. Our People's Army, with a glorious history of battle, has further enhanced its powerful combat effectiveness. We can say with pride that China's PLA is a steel great wall on which the people of our whole country can entirely rely.
The 12th CPC National Congress pointed out: "We should exert great efforts to strengthen the building of the PLA, and build it into a powerful, modernized, and regularized revolutionary army. We should also further enhance the self-defense combat effectiveness of our army under the conditions of modern warfare." Comrades of the entire army have regarded the attainment of such an objective as their own glorious historical task. They are exerting unremitting efforts to fulfill the task. Although we have scored great successes, we still face arduous tasks. We should make every effort to strive for this end.
To build a Chinese-type modernized and regularized revolutionary army, we should promote the revolutionization, modernization and regularization of the army. These are interrelated and promote each other, and none is indispensable. We should take the modernization of our army as our key task.
Taking the modernization of our army as the key task is determined by the history and practical conditions of our army. This is an inexorable demand placed on our army by modern warfare. This is also the road our army should follow in order to advance to a higher stage. Generally speaking, the level of revolutionization of our army ranks first in the world. Armies of capitalist countries simply cannot attain such a high level of revolutionization. This is the absolute superiority of our army. The level of modernization and modern scientific knowledge of our army is not high and its weapons and equipment are comparatively backward. These are the weak links of our army. Modern warfare has manifested unprecedentedly new characteristics, and placed higher demands on the modernization of the army. If we fail to enhance the level of modernization of our army, it is difficult to adapt ourselves to modern warfare, and fulfill the sacred tasks of safeguarding the motherland the defending peace.
After the birth of new China, in accordance with Comrade Mao Zedong's strategic thinking on strengthening national defense and building modernized revolutionary armed forces, we established various kinds of services, ran various kinds of military schools and institutes, gradually renewed our weapons and equipment, reformed army establishments, strengthened comprehensive training for various kinds of services, worked out various kinds of rules and regulations, and published various kinds of manuals. In such a way, our army made a gratifying step on the path of modernization. However, due to the influence of the "leftist" guiding thought and the severe interference and sabotage of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques in particular, the building of our army gradually deviated from this key task. Stuff such as "putting poli- tics first," "politics overwhelm everything else" and so forth advocated by Lin Biao were greatly harmful, and produced enormous adverse influence. For a very long time the fallacy of "trusting spirit as omnipotent" made a lot of noise. People did not dare to talk about modernization and regularization of the army. Military cadres did not dare to grasp training, and vocational cadres did not dare to grasp the work of promoting professional skills. The modernization and regularization of our army stagnated for a time, or even retrogressed in certain aspects. This was a bitter experience. Since Comrade Deng Xiaoping has taken charge of the work of the Military Commission, he has made a series of strategic decisions and again shifted the focus of work to the modernization of the army. In such a way, the building of our army has gotten onto the right track of Marxism- Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought again. This is the way we bring order out of chaos with regard to the orientation of building our army, and the development of Mao Zedong's military thinking under new historical conditions.
A correct guiding principle is a banner for mobilizing millions upon millions of the masses who are fighting with one heart. The 3d Plenary Session of the 11-th CPC Central Committee has decided to shift the focus of work-to-socialist modernization. The 12th CPC National Congress has pointed out that the realization of the four modernizations is a general task of the party in the new historical period. All these have played a great role in mobilizing the entire party and people of the whole country. To keep abreast of this situation, we should also regard modernization as a key task in building our army.-. However, with regard to the problem of building the army, some comrades have not yet clearly realized the importance of the key task of modernization. In practical work they have not yet truly shifted their attention to modernization. This situation should be rapidly changed. We should be bold and assured in adhering to the key task of modernization, and all other work should be arranged around this key task.
We stress the key task of modernization. Does this mean that we are allowed to neglect and weaken the revolutionization and regularization of the army? The answer is no. On the contrary, we should strengthen the revolutionization and regularization of the army; a higher level is attained with regard to the modernization of our army. Stricter demands are set on its revolutionization and regularization. Comrade Mao Zedong said: To keep abreast with the modernization of the weapons and equipment, regularization of our army is required. In other words, we should follow a unified command, system, establishment, discipline and training. Close and coordinated operations of various kinds of services are needed. He added: We should strengthen our sense of organization, planning, accuracy and discipline in the entire work and command. Our ability in this regard should first of all be fostered in the course of education and training. The modernization of the army has necessitated its regularization. Regularization is needed in order to modernize the army. In this sense, the regularization of the army is an important content of the modernization of the army. Revolutionization is a basic guarantee for modernization. Powerful revolutionary political work is indispensable in order to ensure the socialist orientation of our army building and the proletarian nature of our troops, to give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of the broad masses of officers and^ men in the army building, to overcome various kinds of obstacles and difficulties arising in the course of the modernization, and to speed up the progress of army building.
The modernization of an army is closely related to the political system, economic strength, military strategy, and scientific and technological level of a state. The orientation and path of its building and the focal point of its development are particularly restricted by the politics, tactics, and military strategy of the state, the combat tasks shouldered by the armed forces in future wars, and the conditions on the battlefields. The conditions in our country and in our army differ from those in other countries; therefore, in modernizing our army, we cannot copy the patterns of other countries, but must adhere to a "Chinese pattern," adapt our- selves to China's national conditions, and have our own special characteristics. We will always lag behind others if we copy other people in modernizing our army. If we are divorced from the realities in our country, even though we are armed with new weapons and equipment, these weapons and equipment will be mere show and will not form any real combat strength. In order to build a modern army with special Chinese characteristics, we should proceed from the realities in our country and in our army, put forth clear and definite guidelines and requirements of principle on the orientation of development and the basic content of modernization, and formulate plans for various periods. In so doing, we should rely on the exploration and creativity in the practice of the masses. Judging from the existing conditions, a modernized and regular revolutionary army with special Chinese characteristics should be one which conforms to our national conditions, which flexibly integrates advanced military thinking and fine traditions with modern weapons and equipment and competent military personnel, and which possesses the capacity to defend itself in modern warfare; in other words, a developed people's army with the tradition of people's war plus modern military science, weapons, and equipment.
How should we reflect special Chinese characteristics in the modernization of our army?
We should develop the most urgently needed new types of weapons and equipment as soon as possible. The development of modern science and technology has enormously expanded the destructive force of weapons. In future wars against aggression, we should still stress the decisive role of man but under no circumstances should we neglect the important role of weapons. Without advanced weapons and equipment, we shall pay a higher price and prolong the time for winning the war. We should make the best use of our time and strive to change the backwardness of our weapons and equipment. In the new historical period, the central task of our party is to lead the people in carrying out socialist construction. The modernization of our army must be suited to the development of the national economy. We have a large population, a poor foundation, and limited funds. Therefore, we should not incur huge military expenditures as the superpowers do. Nor should we blindly pursue large-scale and rapid modernization of the army regardless of our national economic conditions. In developing weapons and equipment, we should make overall arrangements and scientific planning. First of all, we should stress the main points and concentrate our forces on developing the most urgently needed defensive weapons and equipment Second, we should update the equipment in an orderly way and step by step, allowing the coexistence of outmoded and modern equipment and of ordinary and advanced technology. In order to stress the main points, we should give up some things of secondary importance. One must lose one thing in order to gain another. If we attend to too many things at the same time, we shall end up by developing nothing. In modernizing our army, we should import some necessary and advanced technological equipment. However, ours is a big but developing country. It will not do to rely on purchasing advanced technological equipment to achieve the modernization of national defense. Nor can we afford it. We may purchase some weapons and equipment but they will not necessarily conform to the specific conditions in our country, such as topography and weather. We should base ourselves on independence and self-reliance and rely on our own strength to develop weapons and equipment. We have developed and produced sophisticated strategic weapons, such as atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, and long-range guided missiles, as well as excellent conventional weapons for self-defense. We should continue to tap this potential and at the same time integrate it satisfactorily with mass technological innovation. The masses are the operators of weapons and equipment. It often happens that a small invention can solve a big problem. We stress the main points and self-reliance, but under no circumstances should we comprehend "distinguishing Chinese characteristics and "low standards" and thus lower the objective of our modernization. At present the modernization level of our troops is not very high, but it should be noted that the development of the national economy in the past few years has been gratifying. According to the Marxist theory of economic strength being the material basis of force, it can be expected that with the development of the national economy, encouraging prospects will certainly emerge in the modernization of the army.
We should establish scientific forms of organization and basic scientific regulations that are suited to modern warfare. In the middle of the last century Marx pointed out: "With the invention of a new instrument of war- fare, firearms, the entire internal organization of the army necessarily changed; the relationships within which individuals can constitute an army and act as an army were transformed and the relations of different armies to one another also changed." ("Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol 1, p 363) The development of modern military science and technology, weapons, and equipment has caused and will continue to cause great changes in the mode of operations and it also calls for corresponding changes in the organization of the army. In 1982 the Central Military Commission put forward the principles of training better and combined troops, combining_ peacetime with war preparedness, and improving efficiency. By streamlining and reorganizing the forces and carrying out structural reform the past I years, we have made a big stride forward in this direction. However, _ tremendous efforts should still be made in order to achieve this objective completely. With the improvement in the sophisticated standard of weapons, equipment, and command systems, the number of soldiers can be properly reduced. On the basis of being able to deal with a partial war or an _ unexpected incident, we should be determined to further reduce the quantity and improve the quality of our army. Following the high automation of operational command and weapons control, the command organizations should be highly efficient and be able to make quick responses. If the organizations are overstaffed and unwieldy, they will not easily deploy them, still less to direct operations. In order to increase our combat strength, we should increase the work efficiency of our troops, streamline organizations, and simplify the administrative structure so that they can be highly trained and flexible. We should abolish some units which should be abolished and amalgamate those which should be amalgamated. Naturally, it is also necessary to establish new units which should be established according to the requirements of modern warfare. The most important thing in the scientific organization of the forces is to strengthen the combination of the forces. Only by combining the various arms and services in a genuinely flexible way in various aspects, such as structural establishment, training, command, and management, will it be possible for our troops to constitute a powerful com- bat force. We should explore the new scientific system of combined army units, establish a corresponding command system, and formulate a set of rules and regulations for directing and managing the modernized combined army units. In building the army, we should satisfactorily integrate peacetime with war preparedness and the maintenance of the army with the use of military forces. While reducing the standing army, we should step up the building of the militia and reserve service and build up specialized technical soldiers and reserve officers in accordance with the new military service law promulgated some time ago. China has a large population and is rich in manpower resources. Provided that the people are well-trained, it does not make any difference if we have fewer troops in peacetime. As soon as a war breaks out, we can expand them immediately.
It is necessary to train a large number of able troops. The key to the modernization of our army lies in training able troops. Without them there will be no modernization of our army. We have all along stressed the human factor in war. Bravery, consciousness, and the spirit of sacrifice are a part of the human factor, on which we must continue to lay due stress, but they are not the whole. The whole of the human factor should include vigor in health, spirit, knowledge, and ability. While training modern military forces, we must pay particular attention to this point. To train modern military forces, the most important approach is to make the ranks of cadres more revolutionary, younger in average age, better educated, and more professionally competent. For many historical reasons, most of our troop cadres, and particularly high-ranking cadres, are now advanced in years, and they do not have a sufficient knowledge of culture and science or of modern military science. In the past year, we have readjusted leading groups of the army units in line with the principle of promoting outstanding younger cadres and helped PIA men learn science and acquire general knowledge extensively and thoroughly. As a result, the ranks of our army's cadres have made big strides in the four modernizations, yet they still cannot meet the needs of army building. In view of the present situation, the training of modern military personnel, the structural change in the ranks of cadres, and the acquiring of new knowledge are still very pressing problems for our army. "We should not be afraid that generals are incompetent, the important thing is to train and enlighten them." We must indeed place education and training in a strategic position by strengthening education and training in military academies, making a success of in-service training, and encouraging self-study. Through strict, regular, and systematic military and political training, we must give full play to scientific and cultural knowledge in improving military ability and political consciousness and in enhancing cadres' command and combat ability in adapting themselves to modern warfare.
We should carry on and develop the military thought of Mao Zedong and formulate new forms and combat methods of people's war under modern conditions. The modernization of military thought is the precursor of the modernization of our army. If military thought stays in a rut, we cannot move a single step forward in the modernization of our army. In the past, Mao Zedong's military thought guided us to defeat the enemy at home and abroad, its fundamental viewpoints and tenets are still applicable today and will be applicable tomorrow. However, as the practice of war develops, theory can in no way stand still. To win a war in future, we must have new military theory as a guide. We must insist on developing Mao Zedong's military thought while carrying it on, and insist on carrying it on, while developing it. Some people think that we can hardly create new military theory, as our weapons and equipment are backward. This is obviously a lopsided view. Inventors of new weaponry may not be creators of new warfare, and countries which lag behind in military technology may often stand in the fore in the development of military thought, if they can make good use of the achievements of the world's most advanced military technology. This is a common sight in world military history. New military thought is also a reflection of new relations of production in the military sphere. During the revolutionary war years, our weapons and equipment were terribly poor, yet we created the world's most advanced thought on people's war. It is thus clear that we should and certainly can create advanced military thought in the course of modernizing our army. In accordance with the objective realities in our country and our army and in the light of the characteristics of modern warfare, we should make further study of Marxist military theory so as to develop Mao Zedong's military thought to a new stage. The thought on people's war is a major component part of Mao Zedong's military thought. Fighting a people's war is a strong point and characteristic of our army. Our socialist system and strategic principle of positive defense decide that any war in which we engage will be a self-defense war against aggression. We must continue to depend on people's war and give play to human subjective activity so as to defeat an enemy with superior equipment with our inferior equipment. However, what we mean by inferior equipment and superior equipment today is by no means the concept of using millet plus rifles to fight against aircraft and guns. Great changes have taken place in "yours" and "ours"; neither should we abandon the idea of people's war and copy indiscriminately the military theory of other countries just because our army is modernized to a certain extent, nor should we keep our past strategy and tactics intact only because we want to engage in people s war. In view of the new characteristics and new requirements of modern war- fare and of the changing situation, we should work hard to explore the law of modern warfare and to study the strategy and tactics of people's war under modern conditions so as to enrich and develop our military thought.
Making our army revolutionized is an important mark which distinguishes our army from the army of any capitalist country. In order to build up a modern army with special Chinese characteristics, we should in no circumstances forget this major, distinguishing feature. The proletarian nature of our army should never be changed, even though it is highly modernized. We must insist that the party should exercise absolute leadership over the army and the purpose of the army is to serve the people wholeheartedly. In all army building work, we should carry out the four basic principles and implement the line, principles, and policies formulated since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee. During the prolonged revolutionary war, our army established a series of fine traditions in political work, such as educating the army units in the line, principles, and policies of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought and of our party, enforcing the three main rules of discipline and the eight points for attention, carrying out the principle of unity between officers and men, unity between the army and the people and the disintegration of the enemy, carrying on democracy in the three main fields—political democracy, economic democracy, and military democracy—and cultivating in the army units a revolutionary and death- defying spirit, a spirit of strictly observing discipline and self- sacrifice, a spirit of unselfishness and putting others before oneself, a spirit of vanquishing all enemies and despising all difficulties, a spirit of revolutionary optimism, and a spirit of surmounting every difficulty to win victory. These fine traditions were established and developed in blood over scores of years in our revolutionary war. They are our invaluable assets. In building up our army into a modern one, we must absorb and carry on the essence of our army and should on no account throw away our "invaluable assets." In line with the current actual conditions, we should enrich and develop these fine traditions so as to suit the needs of modernizing our army under the new situation and to ensure the smooth development of the modernization.
The modernization of an army is a continuous process of reform. Only through reform can there be hope for the modernization of our army and can it make progress.
An energetic army constantly changes itself. The history of the building of our army is a history of unceasing reform. Since Comrade Deng Xiaoping took charge of the work of the Military Commission, with modernization as the focus of its attention, our army has carried out some reforms with notable success. For example, we have streamlined and reorganized the army, carried out structural reform, attached strategic importance to education and training, restored the military academies and institutions, readjusted army, divisional, and regimental leading bodies, jointly built a socialist spiritual civilization with the people, acquired some scientific and cultural knowledge, trained people to be capable of doing both army and civilian work, revised various rules and regulations, and so on. These reforms have brought about a new situation in all areas of the work of our army. However, the reform of the entire army, we should say, has just begun. In order to build our army into a really modernized and revolutionary regular army with special Chinese characteristics, it is necessary to persistently carry on with the reforms in an even more comprehensive and in-depth manner.
In order to carry out the reforms in an in-depth manner, it is necessary to aim at attaining loftier goals and to broaden our field of vision. "I am going to conquer the highest mountain and see how small the other mountains really are." Only by sweeping down irresistibly from a commanding height can we advance victoriously everywhere. Thus, we must study history, pay close attention to the current situation, face the world, and have the future in mind.
In the past, some political activities organized under the influence of "leftist" ideas, particularly the 10 years of internal disorder, had con- fused important matters of right and wrong in the area of army building. In addition, as the situation kept changing, there was also the question of adapting the good things to the circumstances. If we are to draw lessons from history, we should renew our understanding of the history and tradition of our army. Having carried out construction and fought for decades, what strong points and weaknesses has our army displayed? Which elements of our tradition are still applicable today? Which elements are outmoded? Which elements can still be useful after being transformed? We must have a very clear idea of all this. Otherwise, we will not know what to change and will not be able to find the starting point. The study of history includes the study of the history of the modernization of our army. In the course of modernization, our army has taken crooked roads, achieved success, and learned historical lessons as well. Today, when we propose the building of a modernized army with special Chinese characteristics, we should pay close attention to summarizing experience and lessons.
The current situation is a bridge joining history to the future. In addition, it is also the point from which we march forward. In order to carry out reforms, it is necessary to study the current situation. What problems are there in the modernization of our army? What are the major contradictions? Which things should be changed? Which things should be changed first and which later? All these and more are questions that should be thoroughly studied and investigated. If we do not study the current situation, we will not have a clear picture of things and it will be difficult for us to seek truth from facts. For example/China is a country with a vast territory and long borders, its topography is complicated, and the circumstances on the battlefields vary. Thus, troops advancing in different directions are assigned different combat tasks. There are contradictions, in terms of the army's equipment and forms of organization, between diversification and uniformity. It is necessary to properly study how this practical problem can be scientifically solved.
In the area of economic construction, China is pursuing a policy of opening the country to the world. Similarly, we cannot build our army with the^ whole world shut out. We should be good at observing problems in the wide scope of the whole world and at learning from the good things in foreign countries in order to learn from other people's strong points to offset our own weak points. This means that we should pay close attention to trends in world strategic developments, pay attention to collecting new information about world military developments, research into new development trends among foreign armies, and combine what we learn from foreign armies with what we have created independently. Lu Xun advocated a takeover policy. I am of the opinion that anything useful for the development of our army should be taken over and utilized by us. Armies that implement a closed-door policy are shortsighted and shortsighted armies cannot help but fall behind the development of the times.
Military science and technology develop with each passing day and this requires us to be farsighted in modernizing the army. Military affairs are the area of social life in which the latest scientific and technological achievements are most speedily and extensively applied. In addition, many scientific and technological discoveries and innovations have first resulted from the work and needs in the area of military affairs. At present, a new worldwide technological revolution is under way. Although at present it is still difficult to comprehensively, accurately, and scientifically predict its effects on military affairs, we are entirely free to probe some important and relevant questions in an in-depth manner. In formulating long- term plans for building the army, if we thoroughly study the trends, we can avoid being blind, make our goals more scientific and more reasonable, and avoiding taking redundant, crooked roads.
In order to carry out reforms in an in-depth manner, it is necessary to brilliantly combine centralized, unified leadership with efforts devoted to giving play to the spirit of innovation and the initiative of the masses and to do so in a guided, planned, and step-by-step manner. Our army is an armed force which discharges revolutionary and political tasks. It is necessary to preserve a high degree of unity and centralism, to have a strong sense of organization and discipline, and not to take independent courses of action individually. Reforms affecting the overall situation should be decided on by the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission and should be carried out under unified command. The reforms should be centered on the goal of building a modernized, revolutionary regular army with special Chinese characteristics and be favorable to adding to the combat strength of our army. However, this does not render it unnecessary to arouse the enthusiasm and creativity of the masses. Those reforms strongly recommended and enthusiastically carried out by the masses are ones best suited to the needs of the army. Thus, they have exuberant vitality and special Chinese characteristics. Actually, many reforms have begun with the creations of the masses and have been speedily perfected and popularized under centralized and unified leadership. In recent years, our army has carried out many successful reforms. They are creations produced by the masses in light of the needs resulting from new circumstances. Thus, in regard to the important reforms in army building, all units should enthusiastically offer suggestions on the basis of the overall situation. It is necessary to boldly and resolutely reform without delay war preparation work, education and training, instruction in the academies and institutions, and logistical and security work provided that it is our duty to do so, that we make sure that it is necessary to do so, and that the conditions are ripe. Malpractices having to do with ideological style and methods of work, such as bureaucracy and the practices of seeking personal gain by capitalizing on one's powers, of paying lip service, and of holding back unpleasant information, should be reformed immediately and the sooner the better. Reforms in this regard do not affect the overall situation. There is no need to spend much money or to recruit more people. The only thing that counts is our attitude. In the course of reform, it is necessary to emphasize the need to listen to experts and specialists, to give full play to the role of research organs, to perfect the things created by the masses, and to translate the research results achieved by the special organs into actual mass action.
In order to profoundly institute reform, the most important thing is to remove some ideological obstacles.
Totally negate the "Great Cultural Revolution" and eliminate the influence of the "left" deviation. In order to institute reform in the army,; the key is to eliminate "left" deviation. The influence of "left" deviation has been deep-rooted in military work. In the past few years, although We have made successes in eliminating the influence of the "left" deviation, the work still lacks profoundness and thoroughness. Today the influence of the "left" deviation still constrains to varying degrees the thinking of some comrades. Only by totally negating the "Great Cultural Revolution" can we eliminate the influence of "left" deviation, keep in ideological and political unity with the CPC Central Committee; and genuinely seek truth from facts and emancipate our minds. Naturally, we should also take note of preventing and straightening out "right" deviation.
Break with the idea of sticking to old ways. As reform is a process of destroying the old and establishing the new, it is bound to encounter obstructions from outdated conventional ideas and force of habit. It usually happens in the history of war that a triumphant army always fondly regards its past successful experience to the hindrance of its progress, thus following the beaten track in the face of development in warfare. We should be proud of being a victorious army, of winning numerous battles, and of attaining earthshaking achievements. However, this pride may easily become a burden. Since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the comrades of our army have constantly emancipated their minds, smashed some "restricted zones" in the military field, and reformed old practices which were forbidden in the past. Due to the practice of self- seclusion for a long time which limited the people's field of vision, - instead of having a clear understanding of the new military-science in the contemporary world some comrades are content with their old way of; doing things. Although they agree with reform in words, they pursue the old practices when they encounter concrete problems and they are used to judging and solving new problems by old standards. Some comrades have, not attached due importance to the creation of new military theories and operational tactics but only try to mend the traditional practices in a conventional manner. They do not believe that new science and technology: can produce a great impact on war and they regard the scientific prediction of future military development as creating something new and original. We should admit that past experience can be used for reference. Since we are confronting constantly developing and changing circumstances, we should draw from historical experience the things useful for the present and future, instead of regarding historical experience as an "omnipotent magic weapon" which can be mechanically applied in everything. "As the world develops, things change accordingly" and "as things change, we should adapt ourselves to new circumstances." This progressive historical point of view put for- ward by Han Fei is still useful for us today in adapting to and catching up with the situation of reform.
Break through the idea of settling things once and for all. The reform of our army cannot be accomplished in one or two attempts. This is because we need a process for the understanding of objective things and it is impossible to achieve the unity of subjective ideas with objective reality in a single stroke. Moreover, objective things are constantly developing and changing, therefore, after acquiring understanding of the past process of objective things, we should continue to acquire understanding of the new developments of objective things. Due to the constant development of military science and technology and the emergence of new characteristics in modern wars, we should deepen our understanding and carry out reform accordingly. Otherwise, we may lag behind. It is thus obvious that we should regard reform as a protracted task.
At present, the party rectification work of the army is developing in depth. Fundamentally speaking, the purpose of the current party rectification is to realize the general objective and task put forward by the 12th CPC National Congress. With regard to the army, it is to build a modernized and regularized revolutionary army with special Chinese characteristics. We should appropriately combine party rectification with reform and use party rectification to impel reform. In the course of studying documents and comparison and examination, a number of units of the first group to undergo party rectification have discussed major issues centered on building a modernized army with special Chinese characteristics, have grasped reform, and have aroused their initiative in innovating and creating, thus presenting a new image of people forging ahead. We must push on in the flush of victory, take reform as the key link of party rectification, and concentrate a period of time to develop the work in depth. Apart from straightening out the malpractices of bureaucratism, abusing power to seek personal gains, and so on, we must clearly define the guiding principle for army building and must study and solve the major issues concerning the building of army modernization.
A new chapter in the glorious history of the PLA has been opened. We often say that a man can devote his life to only a limited number of struggles. In the course of 57 years of struggle, our army defeated the Japanese aggressors in the first struggle; overthrew the three big mountains in the second struggle; and victoriously defended the socialist motherland in the third struggle. Now we are carrying out the new struggle of building a modernized army with special Chinese characteristics. Many of our veteran comrades have made their contributions to the life-and-death struggles. Today the commanders and fighters of the whole army, whether they are of the older generation who have devoted themselves to military life or of the new generation who have just joined the army, should unite and be of one heart and mind under the correct leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission, should boldly carry out reform and forge ahead, and should make their contributions to the building of a modernized and regularized revolutionary army with special Chinese characteristics.