Expert on Chinese military’s new roles

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Editor’s note: The article is based on an interview with Senior Colonel Zhou Bo, the director of the Security Cooperation Center of China's Central Military Commission International Military Cooperation Office.

August 1, 2018, marks the 91st birthday of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Ninety-one years ago, the people's army was founded in the August 1 Nanchang Uprising (1927), which marked the beginning of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) independent leadership of the revolutionary war.

During the 19th CPC National Congress last year, the Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping, also the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), met with senior military officers, saying the CPC would strive to fully transform the people’s armed force into a world-class military by the mid-21st century.

CGTN’s "The Point" invited Senior Colonel Zhou Bo to share his opinion on the PLA’s tradition and modernization on China’s 91st Army Day.

"The PLA is confident about itself, in that it believes that we have never lost any wars after liberation, and we came from a very small, weak background, but we lost no wars after liberation,” Zhou said.

Zhou pointed to AI technology, civil-military integration and China's position as the largest industrial nation in the world as "boosters" that will help push forward the PLA's development. He added that China is the world's largest industrialized nation, and now has a strong defense industry that can produce virtually anything the PLA needs.

In his opinion, the Chinese military reform has achieved historic breakthroughs in many major fields. And the military is determined to make greater contributions to realizing the rejuvenation of the country and better maintaining world peace.

“For the military, the first priority is always to defend China's territory. But for the Chinese military, and as a result of China’s development, we have two more new roles, in my understanding, that is to protect China’s ever-growing overseas interest and to show its increasing international responsibility,” Zhou said.

(Cover Photo: The PLA Honor Guard enters Tiananmen Square during the flag-raising ceremony on Army Day, Beijing, China, August 1, 2018. /VCG Photo)