The Fifth Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China (CPC) first mentioned the centennial goal of building up the military: the same as abandoning the peaceful rise

The fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded yesterday (29th), with the CPC’s first mention of the “centennial goal of building an army” to be achieved by 2027, and an analysis by Chinese scholars that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s acceleration of this goal is tantamount to abandoning the previous basic strategy of “peaceful rise” in favor of a militaristic development path.

According to Chinese media reports, China’s official communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference released last night mentions “accelerating the modernization of national defense and the army, implementing Xi Jinping’s idea of strengthening the army, adhering to the Party’s absolute leadership of the people’s army,” and “comprehensively strengthening military training and preparation for war, and enhancing the strategy of defending national sovereignty, security, and development interests. We will ensure that the century-long goal of building a strong military force will be achieved by 2027”. In addition, the communiqué mentions the word “strong nation” more than 10 times, such as “cultural power” and “technological power.

According to Wu Qiang, a Chinese political scientist and former lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Tsinghua University in Beijing, as quoted by RTHK, Xi Jinping has a deep sense of crisis this year, both personally and in terms of his party, and therefore proposes to tie himself to the fate of his country and his party, and to accelerate the century-long goal of building an army in 2027, which is tantamount to abandoning the basic strategy of “rising peacefully and biding one’s time” and shifting to the development path of “militarism” that prepares for confrontation, military struggle and war.

Wu Qiang also believes that Xi Jinping’s prioritization of developmentalism and show of power means that issues such as democracy and freedom, fair social distribution, and narrowing the gap between rich and poor will be excluded.