STRESSING PARTY LEADERSHIP, INTEGRITY
Xi said that Party leadership was the be-all-and-end-all for building a strong army.
"The key of absolute loyalty to the Party is 'absolute'," Xi said. "It is unique, thorough, unconditional loyalty, without any impurities."
Upon Xi's decision, a conference on the army's political work convened in late October 2014, in Gutian Township, Fujian Province, the very same place that Mao Zedong presided over a conference that established the principle of the Party's absolute leadership over the army in 1929.
A document released after the conference urged the whole armed forces to stick to the fundamental principle of the Party's leadership, and firmly implement the systems and mechanisms that ensure the CMC chairman responsibility system, through which the CPC leads the army.
At the New Gutian conference, Xi urged the army to pay attention to the corruption of Xu Caihou and root out his negative influence.
Xu, who once headed the PLA's political work and was a former CMC vice chairman, was among scores of generals that were charged with corruption after the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012.
Guo Boxiong, another former CMC vice chairman, was also among those charged with corruption.
As Xi ordered, the CMC established an inspection system within the army in October 2013 and the system covered all military area commands in 2015.
The whole army also examined the problems pointed out by Xi at the New Gutian Conference, launching a series of special campaigns to rectify them.
Integrity building achieved significant results. In 2015, almost 10,000 houses were returned and about 25,000 public vehicles were cut. Administration costs above the corps level were cut in half or higher year-on-year.
BIGGEST CHANGE EVER, STILL DEFENSIVE
On April 20, Xi appeared in public with a new title -- commander-in-chief of the newly-established CMC joint battle command center, which he inspected on the day dressed in camouflage fatigues.
The center belongs to a tiered command system including the CMC, theater commands and others. It is part of the overall reform of the PLA's organization, a culmination of Xi's military thought.
Other changes include the inauguration of a general command of the PLA Army, the PLA Rocket Force, and the PLA Strategic Support Force.
The seven military area commands were regrouped into five theater commands, and the four military departments -- staff, politics, logistics and armaments -- were reorganized into 15 agencies.
Professor Li said the new command system responded to the need of a more centralized decision-making processes in modern warfare, while partition of responsibility would lead towards a more modern administration.
"It is the biggest change to PLA structure since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949," said Li.
Despite the increase of its strength in both combat capability and command, China's national defense policy, which is defensive in nature, remains unchanged.
Maj. Gen. Chen Zhou, a research fellow with the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, said it is unavoidable that some people are worried about a rising China, but China focuses on a peaceful path to development and building political and military mutual trust, breaking the historical logic of rising powers seeking hegemony.
An increasing number of Chinese servicemen are joining UN peacekeeping missions around the world. In the past two months, three Chinese peacekeeping soldiers were killed in Mali and South Sudan.
"China needs to explain more clearly its core interests and the challenges it is facing," said Li.
"But more importantly, whether we can safeguard our security and maintain global and regional peace depends on our strength," Li said.
