Xi highlights key tasks for armed forces

President Xi Jinping called for the Chinese military to accomplish all goals listed in its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) when he met on Friday with deputies from the armed forces to the 14th National People's Congress.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, told national legislators from the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force at the third session of the 14th NPC that successful completion of the 14th Five-Year Plan is important for the timely realization of the centenary goal of the PLA and the great cause of national rejuvenation.

He urged service members to bolster their confidence, confront challenges, meet high-quality development requirements, and strive to complete all established objectives and tasks on schedule.

The commander-in-chief said that since the military's 14th Five-Year Plan was launched, the armed forces have made a series of major achievements but still face a number of challenges and problems. It is crucial to balance progress and quality, costs and benefits, overall objectives and key focal points, development and regulation, as well as the plan's implementation and capacity building, he noted.

The military must pursue a development path characterized by high quality, high efficiency, low cost and sustainability to ensure that the outcomes of these efforts could withstand the tests of history and actual combat operations.

Xi ordered the military to accelerate efforts in resolving bottlenecks and obstacles in implementing the plan, strengthen cross-department, cross-domain, and military-civilian coordination, and improve the making, assessment and implementation of policies.

Modern management concepts and methods must be leveraged to continuously refine strategic management systems, thus bolstering the systematic, holistic and coordinated execution of plans. The defense budget and other resources must be reasonably used to improve cost-effectiveness ratios, according to the president.

Xi called for better utilization of the strengths and resources of civilian sectors and seizing the opportunities from the country's new quality productive forces to enhance the quality and efficiency of military development.

Calling for the accelerated development of new quality combat capabilities, Xi urged efforts to improve a swift response and rapid transformation mechanism for advanced technologies.

He also stressed that the armed forces must enhance their assessment and supervision capabilities to uproot corruption and support the implementation of the plan.

Before addressing the lawmakers, Xi listened to thoughts and suggestions shared by six deputies who spoke about topics such as hardware testing facilities, expenditure management, weaponry production and military infrastructure construction.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn