Rising challenges in the world are pressuring China to make changes to bolster its military.

“The missions and tasks of the army have greatly changed, and so has its strategic priorities. New challenges are coming from all dimensions -- land, sea, air, cyber and space. China feels increasing strategic pressure. The security factors make it necessary to raise the budget. Besides, there’s been a growing need to protect China’s overseas interests,” said Major General Chen Zhou, a National People's Congress deputy as well as a Director of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Science, in an interview with CGTN.

China has the largest army in the world and the world’s second biggest defense budget. But the per capita spending is only a fraction of that of other nations. Over the past year, the PLA started implementing a series of major changes to theater levels of command. These are the institutions that plan, command and sustain joint operations.

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference member, Yin Zhuo, said this systematic transformation of the army is crucial to boosting its strength.

"President Xi Jinping says the overall capabilities of the army need to be improved through reforms,” said Yin, who is also a PLA Navy Information Committee member. “This is an efficient transformation towards modernization. Without reforms, money spent on development may not result in real combat strength. The new commanding system will speed up the joint operational capabilities, to gradually narrow the gap with advanced countries.”