The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is celebrating its 97th anniversary in the mid-summer of 2024. Looking back at this significant moment, we are proud of what we have achieved in strengthening the Chinese military. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the PLA, under the leadership and command of Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, has resolutely safeguarded national sovereignty, security and development interests with a firm will and powerful actions, and managed and controlled crisis through its war-preparedness efforts. From participating in international military competitions to holding strategic exercises with foreign troops, from taking regular patrols to fighting combats on the border, the PLA has left numerous memorable moments in the past 12 years.
In July 2016, the PLA Air Force released a photo on its official Weibo account that shows the new-generation medium/long-range strategic bomber, the H-6K, patrolling the Huangyan Dao. The photo received a lot of likes.
In 2017, the PLA Army hosted the International Army Games for the first time in Korla of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
In early 2020, the PLA Navy's far-sea training group broke waves to the east, sailing through more than 14,000 nautical miles over 41 days before it crossed the International Date Line to enter international waters in the western hemisphere.
In the concluded exercise Joint Sea 2021, a fleet comprising Chinese and Russian vessels had its first joint patrol. It crossed the Sea of Japan and the Tsugaru Strait, headed east to the West Pacific, turned south and then west to cross the Osumi Strait before entering the East China Sea. On this journey, the fleet also trained on a series of subjects including joint passage voyage, joint maneuvering, and actual use of weapons.
On June 17, 2022, China's indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier Fujian, its first carrier fitted with electromagnetic catapults, launched its first sea trial. That was less than 12 years after PLA's first aircraft carrier Liaoning was commissioned and less than three years after our first homemade carrier Shandong was delivered to the PLA Navy.
Since the Y-20 had its maiden flight in 2013, the transport aircraft has constantly broken its flying distance records and demonstrated immense, all-terrain capability by carrying out military operations other than war (MOOTW) to help Wuhan fight COVID-19, delivering anti-virus supplies to Pakistan, appearing in the Peace Mission exercises, and transporting disaster relief supplies to Tonga and Afghanistan… The list goes on.
To defend China's maritime border, the H-6K bomber has confronted rival bombers head-on multiple times when it was patrolling the East and South China Sea, flying over the West Pacific, and patrolling around Taiwan Island.“Far-sea training was held only a few times a year in the past, but now it's organized multiple times a month. Our fighter jets are flying ever farther, with ever more confidence,” said a captain who has flown across the Tsushima Strait in an H-6K aircraft.
As a popular saying in China goes, "We are not living in a peaceful era; we are just living in a peaceful country". The valuable peace we enjoy should be attributed to the firm leadership of the CPC and CMC Chairman Xi Jinping, to the leapfrog progress in our use of military forces, and to the resolve and confidence of the whole military to fight and win battles anytime.
In the past 12 years, Chairman Xi personally led the formulation of our military strategy and guidelines in the new era, stressing coordinated efforts to shape the situation, control crises, curb war, and win battles. The document, China's Military Strategy, released in May 2015 and the white paper, China's National Defense in the New Era, released in July 2019 elaborated on China's military strategy and defensive defense policy in the new era, demonstrating its strategic confidence as a major country and the unprecedented openness and transparency of the people's armed forces.
In the past 12 years, cross-regional, all-terrain training and force-on-force training have become a regular part of the PLA's training. New-type combat forces have been deployed more quickly to coordinate war preparations in traditional and untraditional security domains. The PLA Army has taken faster steps to transition from regional defense to all-domain operations following the requirement for greater mobility and 3D offensive/defensive operations. The PLA Navy has accelerated its transition from near-sea defense to far-sea defense. The PLA Air Force has been pushing its transition from land-based air defense to offensive/defensive integration.
In the past 12 years, the PLA has carried out a raft of major military operations to safeguard territorial, sovereign and maritime rights and interests.
Delimiting the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone. China announced the delimitation of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone on November 23, 2013. Since then, the PLA has kept conducting routine patrols in the ADIZ to defend the nation's airspace.
Upholding our sovereignty over the Diaoyu Island. By carrying out military-local joint maritime exercises and regular patrols, the PLA is trying to establish a comprehensive maritime defense system to effectively cope with infringements and provocations and defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Steadily pushing forward island and reef construction in the South China Sea. The report at the 19th CPC National Congress, states, "Construction on islands and reefs in the South China Sea has seen steady progress." In 2016, the Chinese government hired civil aircraft to test the newly built airports at Nansha Qundao's Yongshu Jiao, Meiji Jiao, and Zhubi Jiao by conducting test flights.
In the past 12 years, the PLA, under the firm leadership of Chairman Xi, has properly handled emergencies on all fronts and strongly safeguarded national sovereignty, security, and development interests.
The PLA's border troops at the Galwan Valley fought fearlessly against the violent behaviors of foreign troops to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity. "Crystal love for my dear China!" said a soldier who lost his life in the battle. The servicemembers on the border have erected towering boundary monuments with their passion and youth, devoting themselves to the commitment to "protecting every inch of the motherland".
When war broke out in Yemen, the PLA Navy dispatched the frigate Linyi to help evacuate the Chinese there. Frigate Linyi came in and out of the warring country three times within 9 days, working alongside the frigate Weifang and the supply ship Weishanhu to get more than 600 entrapped Chinese out safe and sound. As one of the rescued said, "China's strength doesn't lie in how many countries its people can go visa-free. It lies in how fast it can take you home whenever you are in danger."
On August 1, 2017, the PLA's Djibouti Support Base, our first such base overseas, was completed and put into use. The past seven years have seen the base providing logistics support for the PLA naval fleets as they were performing escort missions at the Gulf of Aden and peacekeeping missions in Africa, making great contributions to safeguarding the nation's strategic interests and promoting exchanges with foreign countries.
In the past years, the PLA has earnestly fulfilled its international responsibilities and obligations, steadily acting as a firm force in preserving world peace and stability by advocating the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and upholding common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security.
In March 2022, the amphibious dock landing ship Wuzhishan and the comprehensive replenishment ship Chaganhu berthed at a military port in Zhanjiang after accomplishing the assistance mission to Tonga, which took them across more than 12,000 nautical miles over 50 days. The PLA naval fleet demonstrated with solid actions how a major-country military fulfills its international duties.
Looking back, the servicemembers participating in the mission recalled what Chairman Xi said at the Spring Festival when he was visiting the PLA Central Theater Command and talking via video with Chinese peacekeepers overseas. He asked them to "fulfill your peacekeeping mission faithfully, make more contributions to world peace, and showcase the Chinese armed forces' good will to the world."
On the same day, at the request of the King of Tonga, two Y-20 transport planes carrying more than 30 tons of supplies for emergency response and post-disaster reconstruction arrived at the Fua'amotu International Airport in Tonga's capital city Nuku'alofa after flying over 10,000km.
In the past 12 years, China has cumulatively sent 46 escort formations to carry out escort and anti-pirate missions at the Gulf of Aden and in waters off the Somali coast. The PLA has also taken an active part in providing international disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, including the search for Malaysian Airline's MH370, helping the Philippines during Typhoon Haiyan, helping Africa fight Ebola, providing anti-drought assistance to Maldives and earthquake assistance to Nepal, and helping Laos in flood control and dam collapse rescue, to name a few.
The hospital ship Peace Ark has sailed beyond national borders 12 times, providing medical services for over 200,000 patients in over 40 countries and regions across three oceans and six continents. It is one of the proofs of China's steadfast commitment to the path of peaceful development and the preservation of humanity's common welfare.
In 2015, President Xi Jinping announced six commitments in support of the UN's peacekeeping missions at the UN Peacekeeping Summit, and those commitments were delivered in the following years. China has formed a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops, sent more staff to take part in UN peacekeeping operations, trained peacekeepers from other countries, and sent its first peacekeeping helicopter squad to UN peacekeeping operations in Africa. As the largest troop-contributing country among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, China has become the country with the largest number of standby peacekeeping troops of the most diversified profile. For more than 30 years, the PLA has sent nearly 50,000 peacekeepers to over 20 UN peacekeeping missions in more than 20 countries and regions. China’s Blue Helmets have made significant contributions to advancing the peaceful settlement of disputes, maintaining regional security and stability, and promoting economic and social development in the host countries.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the PLA, bearing in mind its mission of fulfilling the major country’s duties, preserving world peace, and serving the commitment of building a human community with a shared future, has provided more public security goods for the international community, and engaged in numerous operations ranging from defending maritime rights, combating terrorists, maintaining stability, to providing disaster relief and performing international peacekeeping missions. What it has done is solid proof that the powerful Chinese armed forces always bring the world peace and development, never war and threats.
"We're facing a period of major change never seen in a century. No matter what these changes bring, China will remain resolute and confident in its defense of its national sovereignty and security. And China's sincerity and goodwill to safeguard world peace and promote common development will remain unchanged." This is the historical mission and solemn commitment from China. It is firmly upheld and unwaveringly practiced by the PLA, which is creating an iron wall for defending national interests and preserving world peace.