# National Defense University

Soldier-Scholar Sharps the PLA’s Legal Edge: Inside a Professor’s Drive to Turn Law into a Military Tool

Fu Dalin, a military-law professor at China’s National Defense University, has driven a shift in the PLA to make legal expertise operationally relevant, building courses, labs and field partnerships that integrate law into wartime planning. His work reflects a broader Chinese emphasis on using law as an instrument of statecraft and military competition.