V. Preparation for Military Struggle
VI. Military and Security Cooperation
Preface
The world today is undergoing unprecedented changes, and China is at a critical stage of reform and
development. In their endeavor to realize the Chinese Dream of great national rejuvenation, the Chinese
people aspire to join hands with the rest of the world to maintain peace, pursue development and share
prosperity.
China’s destiny is vitally interrelated with that of the world as a whole. A prosperous and stable world
would provide China with opportunities, while China’s peaceful development also offers an opportunity for
the whole world. China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, pursue an independent
foreign policy of peace and a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, oppose hegemonism
and power politics in all forms, and will never seek hegemony or expansion. China’s armed forces will
remain a staunch force in maintaining world peace.
Building a strong national defense and powerful armed forces is a strategic task of China’s modernization
drive and a security guarantee for China’s peaceful development. Subordinate to and serving the national
strategic goal, China’s military strategy is an overarching guidance for blueprinting and directing the
building and employment of the country’s armed forces. At this new historical starting point, China’s
armed forces will adapt themselves to new changes in the national security environment, firmly follow the
goal of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to build a strong military for the new situation, implement the
military strategic guideline of active defense in the new situation, accelerate the modernization of national
defense and armed forces, resolutely safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,
and provide a strong guarantee for achieving the national strategic goal of the “two centenaries” and for
realizing the Chinese Dream of achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
I. National Security Situation
In today’s world, the global trends toward multi-polarity and economic globalization are intensifying, and
an information society is rapidly coming into being. Countries are increasingly bound together in a
community of shared destiny. Peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit have become an
irresistible tide of the times.
Profound changes are taking place in the international situation, as manifested in the historic changes in
the balance of power, global governance structure, Asia-Pacific geostrategic landscape, and international
competition in the economic, scientific and technological, and military fields. The forces for world peace
are on the rise, so are the factors against war. In the foreseeable future, a world war is unlikely, and the
international situation is expected to remain generally peaceful. There are, however, new threats from
hegemonism, power politics and neo-interventionism. International competition for the redistribution of
power, rights and interests is tending to intensify. Terrorist activities are growing increasingly worrisome.
Hotspot issues, such as ethnic, religious, border and territorial disputes, are complex and volatile. Smallscale wars, conflicts and crises are recurrent in some regions. Therefore, the world still faces both
immediate and potential threats of local wars.
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