Chinese armed forces mourn passing of Jiang Zemin

BEIJING -- Officers and soldiers throughout the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) have for days mourned Comrade Jiang Zemin who passed away at the age of 96 on Wednesday, remembering his remarkable accomplishments.

Jiang put forward a series of new judgments and new measures in advancing the modernization of the national defense and the armed forces, enriched and developed Mao Zedong's military thinking and Deng Xiaoping's thinking on military work in the new historical period, established Jiang Zemin's thinking on strengthening the national defense and armed forces, and led the modernization of the national defense and the armed forces in scoring great achievements.

The service members believe Jiang's achievements while serving as chairman of the Central Military Commission are significant in guiding the advancement of the modernization of the national defense and the armed forces in the long run.

They remembered that Jiang, with a deep understanding of the major changes in the domestic and international situations and development trend of the world's new military transformation, had stressed that it is imperative to stick to the principle of coordinating the development of national defense and the economy, and work to make the people's armed forces more revolutionary, modern and standardized.

He underscored comprehensively promoting the development of the people's armed forces by following the overall requirements of building politically and militarily competent armed forces with fine conduct, strict discipline, and strong logistical support, and focusing on the historical issue of ensuring that the armed forces could fight to win while never degrading in character.

He stressed unwaveringly upholding absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the people's armed forces, always putting ideological and political integrity as a priority among all improvement efforts, and preserving the nature and character of the military as the people's armed forces.

Officers and soldiers also recalled that Jiang had underscored the need to implement the military strategy of active defense and advance military transformation with Chinese characteristics. He stressed unswervingly following a distinctive Chinese approach of having fewer but better troops and achieving leapfrog development in the modernization of the armed forces, with the goal of developing informatized armed forces and winning informatized warfare.

Officers and soldiers said under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, they are resolved to achieve the goals for the PLA centenary in 2027, providing strategic support for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.