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According to the PLA Daily, the main tasks of the National Defense Policy Research Center include participating in the formulation of China's defense white papers, preparing the annual strategic assessment report on the country's security environment, examining major theoretical and practical issues concerning national defense, and holding academy-wide, military-wide, or international seminars on national defense theories.
In April 2011, China released a military blueprint, which says, as part of their efforts to modernize, Chinese armed forces are looking to train officers of a higher caliber, able to handle advanced weaponry and master warfare in the information age by 2020.
The PLA already possesses an array of hi-tech weaponry, but the quality of its soldiers has been lagging behind its technological progress, the document says.
"China has made efforts to strengthen its ability to innovate in science and technology in recent years. It has sped up the development of new and hi-tech weaponry, but this weaponry needs to be handled by highly trained soldiers," said Li with the PLA Navy's Academic Research Institute.
To improve their combat effectiveness, Chinese armed forces need soldiers who are not only specialized in just one field, but also proficient in the joint operations of all three military branches, he added.
"In order to achieve these targets, Qiu Shulin, a researcher with the PLA Academy of Military Science, suggests the reform of military academies should be the first priority.
Chinese military academies provide cadets with training in a range of specializations including engineering, communication technologies, military studies, medical studies, sports and even the humanities including arts and languages.
On July 11, 2011, the 16th Meeting for Military Academies was held in Beijing, initiating a new round of reform for China's officer training system.
The Hefei Institute of Artillery in east China's Anhui Province has been re-launched as an army officer training college modeled along the lines of the U.S. Military Academy, also known as West Point.
"The change illustrates that China is focusing more on the cultivation of army commanders, and that the school will foster more commanders of the infantry, artillery and armored forces," said Wu Xiang, the first president of the school.
The Wuhan-based PLA Communication and Command Institute in Hubei Province changed its name to the Defense Information Institute. The PLA General Staff Headquarters established an information technology department by reorganizing its communications department on June 30, 2011. Chief of the General Staff of the PLA Chen said that the revamp aimed to boost the Chinese armed forces' capability to fight an information war.
The Xi'an-based Second Artillery Engineering School in Shaanxi Province was promoted into the Second Artillery University and the former Engineering College of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force (CAPF) and the Xi'an Commanding College of the CAPF were merged into the Engineering University of the CAPF.
"The changes are in response to the requirements of modern hi-tech wars for more personnel with an engineering background," said the Southern Weekly based in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.
According to the newspaper, some academies of the PLA Air Force and Navy have also been reformed.
Despite reforms, Chinese military academies continue to confront a number of longstanding problems, including overstaffing and redundant functions.
In almost every Chinese province, for example, there was a junior college to train armed police officers. But their distribution across the country made the system difficult for the CAPF Headquarters to manage.
Two weeks after the Meeting for Military Academies, the CAPF decided to reduce the number of its officer training colleges to 14 from 27, with all of them to receive orders directly from CAPF Headquarters.
"Downsizing the number of military academies is an international trend that has happened in almost every major country," said Liu Jifeng, a professor at the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, Hunan Province.
Even before the 2011 Meeting for Military Academies the number of military academies in China had fallen from 100 to 67.
According to Liu, education in general knowledge will be gradually stripped from military academies and those military academies without prominent defining characteristics and unique military technologies will be eliminated as part of reforms for the information age.
Starting from 2011, many military academies have changed their curricula and teaching models.
They are also looking to work together with civilian universities in order to provide cadets with a comprehensive education.
Starting from 2003, the number of national defense students has increased, and some military academies have already launched joint education programs in cooperation with civilian universities. "Studying military knowledge alone will not equip a student for the demands of the military in the 21st century," Liu said.
"The curriculum needs to be creative," said Zhang Yafei, President of the PLA University of Science and Technology in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. "Education needs to make students fit for their future careers, and help them use the knowledge they acquire to solve problems they may encounter in the future."
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