President Xi Jinping meets with deputies from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police Force before attending a plenary meeting with them at the Second Session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing on March 12 (XINHUA)

President Xi Jinping stressed that the set targets and tasks of national defense and military development must be fulfilled as scheduled.

Xi, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police Force at the Second Session of the 13th National People's Congress, the highest organ of state power, on March 12.

Xi said the entire armed forces must clearly understand the importance and urgency of implementing the 13th Five-Year Military Development Plan (2016-2020), firm up their resolve, intensify their sense of mission, forge ahead with a pioneering spirit, and make every effort to carry out the plan in time.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC has set the goal of winning modern informationized warfare, putting forward new thoughts and theories for national defense and military construction. Since 2015, it has also carried out bold and resolute reform based on the most fundamental goal of building combat capability and being able to win, which is the first of the three strategic goals for national defense and military modernization construction.

According to the plan, China will achieve the second of the three strategic goals, namely, completing military reform and having armed forces capable of informationized warfare by 2020. The PLA will have also finished the mechanization of all forces and made important progress in incorporating information and computer technology.

The plan also states that the five years from 2016 to 2020 will lay a solid foundation for the PLA to become a world-class military force.

China will complete the basic modernization of national defense and the armed forces by 2035, which is the third of the three strategic goals for national defense and military modernization construction.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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