Historical Experiences in Army Building Over Past 20 Years ����This is part of Jiang Zemin's speech delivered at an important conference of the army on December 25, 1998) ����Over the past two decades since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, our Party has gained rich achievements and experiences in leading the people of all nationalities of the country in conducting reform, opening and socialist modernization drive under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Party's basic line. Over the same period, our army's drive for revolutionization, modernization and regularization has advanced continuously, its combat effectiveness has risen to a new level, thus making important contributions to our noble cause of the defense and construction of the motherland and to the promotion of world peace. ����A review of the course of our army's development over the past 20 yeas of reform and opening up and a conscientious summary of the historical experiences gained are of major significance for further pushing our army building and achieving the magnificent goal of the cross-century development of national defense and our army's modernization. These experiences are manifested mainly in correctly understanding and handling the following seven-faceted relations: ����(1) The relations between war and peace. On the long run, the army's modernization drive should be carried out in a planned and systematic way, at the same time, it is imperative to step up preparations for military struggle. The two should be correctly combined and unified. ����(2) The relations between the strengthening of national defense and economic construction. Developing economic construction and building up a strong national defense are two major strategic tasks of China's modernization drive. ����(3) The relations between revolutionization, modernization and regularization. The three are related to and promote each other. They should not be separated from or set against each other. Instead, overall consideration must be given to and all-round advancement made for them. ����(4) The relations between the quantity and quality of the army. Correct handling of the relations between the two is vital to army building. ����(5) The relations between standing army and national defense reserve forces. Closely relying on the broad masses of the people is the most profound source of strength of our army. ����(6) The relations between succeeding the fine tradition and engaging in reform and innovation. Historical facts fully show reform is a powerful driving force for the development of our army and constitutes the basic reason for the major achievement gained in our army's building. The fine tradition formed and developed in the long-term practice of our army is a concentrated expression of our army's characteristics and advantages and is a fundamental guarantee for maintaining the nature and combat effectiveness of our army. ����(7) The relations between learning from the useful experiences of foreign armies and maintaining the characteristics of our army. In today's world, it is impossible for any army to realize modernization if it carries out construction behind closed door and refuses to learn from advanced foreign things. Ours is a people's army placed under the absolute leadership of the Party. It must always maintain its own political color and advantage, and must never mechanically copy the principle of foreign armies for administering the army. ����The reason for the tremendous progress made in our army building over the past 20 years lies in the fact that we have always paid high attention to building up a cadre rank loyal to the Party and the people. ���� HomeNews 1999-01-08 Page1 Full Story in Chinese