Chinese military’s new focus: Winning wars against 'strong enemies, opponents'

Beijing: From its decades-old doctrine of winning local wars, China's military is shifting its focus to winning wars against “strong enemies and opponents,” a top defence official has said, amidst the mounting challenges Beijing faces on multiple fronts, including from the US.

President Xi Jinping has also directed the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to improve its strategic ability to defend the country's sovereignty and development interests.

Celebrating the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping, widely hailed as the paramount leader and the architect of modern China who rebuilt the country after the disastrous Mao Zedong era, Xi not only praised his outstanding contributions to the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), the country and the world but also highlighted his emphasis to build a modern military.

“The best way to honour Deng is to continue advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics that he initiated,” Xi, said in his address to a meeting held to mark Deng’s birth anniversary.

He also recalled that Deng had highlighted the need to build the PLA into a strong, modernised and well-organised force, and to have fewer but better troops.

Xi, also the Commander-in-Chief of the PLA, on Thursday told the military to improve its “strategic ability to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests,” the Hong Kong-based South China Post reported.

Significantly, at a PLA commemoration, Miao Hua, a member of the Central Military Commission, the military’s top decision-making body headed by Xi, said: “In the new journey, we should … focus on strengthening capabilities to defeat strong enemies and opponents.” Earlier on Wednesday, an article in the official PLA Daily said Deng had made the strategic judgment that “world wars can be postponed or avoided” in the 1980s, but China now faced “great changes unseen in a century.

“We must … always maintain strategic clarity on the possible risks of war, make full preparations for military struggle, effectively deter war and resolutely win the war.” The latest directive to the PLA to win wars against “strong enemies and opponents” is regarded as a major course correction for the Chinese military considering the mounting challenges China faces on multiple fronts.

Until recently, the CPC’s directive to the PLA was to develop the ability to win local wars considering China’s long-festering border dispute with India besides maritime disputes involving the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea with Japan. China's relations with Taiwan, which Beijing claims is part of its own, have also worsened in recent times.

China claims most of the South China Sea while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan counter its claim.

As recently as in 2022, in his speech at the Party congress, Xi had set “victory in local wars” as a goal and told the PLA to “improve training and preparation for war in all aspects and improve the ability of the army to fight and win.” “We will strengthen the normal and diversified use of military forces, carry out military struggles with determination and flexibility, shape the security posture, contain crises and conflicts, and win local wars,” he said then.

Analysts said the strategic shift from winning local wars to defeating “strong enemies and opponents” was in line with Beijing’s thinking about the risks it faces and its increasing focus on security, particularly in the face of the growing rivalry between China and the United States on multiple fronts.