By Liu Jianwei and Zhu Boyan

BEIJING, March 10 -- President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech when attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force to the Fifth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 7. President Xi stressed running the military in accordance with the law and enhancing the rule of law in national defense and military building.

NPC deputies from the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force studied President Xi’s important speech and made discussions and exchanged views focusing on the topic of expediting fundamental transformations in the way of running the military. They said that the Chinese system for law-based administration of military affairs has seen gradual improvement, the level of the rule of law in national defense and military development has been continuously enhanced, and the concept of the rule of law have been rooted in minds of the troops.

A modernized country must be a country ruled by law, and a modernized army must be an army ruled by law. Talking about implementing the strategy of governing the army in accordance with the law, Xu Xinglin, a deputy from the Central Military Commission (CMC), said that governing the armed forces with strict discipline and in accordance with the law is the foundation of building a strong military.

In October 2014, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made decisions concerning several major issues in comprehensively advancing law-based governance, and made essential arrangements for running the army in accordance with the law.

The CMC issued in February 2015 a document on further advancing the running of the military with strict discipline and in accordance with the law under new situations. In December 2020, the newly revised Law of the People’s Republic of China on National Defense included “to ensure the political loyalty of the armed forces, strengthen them through reform, science and technology, training of competent personnel, and run them in accordance with law” for the first time. This means that as a strategy of running the military, running the military in accordance with the law has been written into basic laws of China.

In November 2021, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee proposed: “Implement the strategy of running the armed forces in accordance with the law, build a Chinese system for law-based administration of military affairs, and expedite fundamental transformations in the way our military is run.”

“The important speech delivered by President Xi at the plenary meeting of the delegation of the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police Force emphasized the implementation of the strategy of running the military in accordance with the law and improvement of the rule of law in national defense and military development, so as to provide a strong legal guarantee for advancing the cause of strengthening the military, which is of great significance,” said deputy Kang Xiaohui.

President Xi stressed that the whole military must pay close attention to and take down-to-earth actions in combat preparedness. Deputy Xiu Changzhi said that the regularization of the military power and the protection of rights and interests of soldiers are fundamentally aimed at forging intrepid troops that are capable of winning and boosting combat effectiveness.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the strong leadership of President Xi and the CMC, the military legislative system and mechanism have been constantly reformed and improved, batches of military laws and regulations which were in urgent need in the military reform and combat preparedness have been successively formulated, promulgated, revised and put into force. The Chinese system for law-based administration of military affairs has been increasingly perfected and well-developed.