Chinese State Media Reaffirm Jiang Zemin Military Thought for Modern Defense Goals

Chinese official media outlets, including People's Daily and China Military Online, have published extensive commentaries reflecting on Jiang Zemin's national defense and military building thought to mark the centenary of his birth. The articles highlight his doctrine's focus on resolving two core challenges: ensuring the People's Liberation Army (PLA) can win high-tech modern wars and maintain its fundamental political character. State media emphasize how Jiang's legacy—including halting military commercial activities, prioritizing the Party's absolute leadership, and adjusting defense strategy toward high-technology local warfare—informs current efforts to advance modernization under Xi Jinping's military thought.

The systematic official retrospective connects foundational military reforms of the 1990s and early 2000s directly to the PLA's current strategic agenda. By invoking Jiang's legacy on high-tech warfare and the ban on commercial pursuits, the Party leadership reinforces institutional discipline, political loyalty, and defense modernization milestones required ahead of the PLA's 2027 centenary goals.

Official Chinese media have published high-level retrospectives evaluating the military thought and historical contributions of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, contextualizing his doctrine within the country's ongoing defense modernization drive. The commentaries, carried by People's Daily and military outlets including China Military Online, commemorate the 100th anniversary of Jiang's birth by analyzing his key strategic formulations. According to the official articles, Jiang's national defense thinking was established during a period marked by rapid global shifts, the proliferation of the revolution in military affairs, and China's transition to a socialist market economy. State commentaries emphasize that his doctrine primarily addressed two overriding questions: ensuring the People's Liberation Army (PLA) could "win battles" in modern conditions and "retain its political nature" without ideological degeneration. The publications review several structural initiatives enacted under Jiang's chairmanship of the Central Military Commission. In response to international developments such as the Gulf War, Jiang oversaw adjustments to national defense strategy that reoriented operational readiness toward winning local wars under modern, high-tech conditions. Additionally, the commentaries highlight his directive decisively barring the PLA from engaging in commercial and business activities, a measure credited with preserving institutional integrity and preventing external commercial influence from undermining military readiness. The state media assessments explicitly connect Jiang's historical policies to the contemporary governance of the armed forces under Chinese President Xi Jinping. The articles call on the PLA to maintain the Party's absolute leadership over the military, carry out normalized political rectification, and comprehensively advance political loyalty, reform, science and technology, personnel cultivation, and rule of law across the armed services. Looking forward, the commentaries frame historical military insights as vital guiding principles for achieving the PLA's centenary goals and building a world-class fighting force. The pieces urge the military to integrate historical experience with active combat preparation, ensuring command structures remain firmly unified under the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and Xi.