PUBLISHED on August 11, 2025, 10:48 AM EDT – Key Points and Summary – China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has officially declared its ambition to match and then surpass the U.S. military by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.
-According to an article in the Communist Party’s official newspaper, achieving a “world-class military” requires the PLA to measure itself against the “world’s strongest military”—an apparent reference to the United States.
-The plan involves a “leapfrog development” strategy, integrating mechanization, informatization, and “intelligentization” (AI) to achieve dominance in weaponry, training, and military theory, ensuring it can win wars and safeguard peace.
China Wants to Build the World’s Most Powerful Military
In another major posturing announcement by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the People’s Republic of China (PRC) force has now declared that it will be measuring itself against the world’s strongest military, which was an apparent reference to the US Armed Forces.
The PLA also aims to surpass the US in modernization, capabilities, and power projection capacity by 2049.
The year 2049 holds particular significance, as it will mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. The data is often mentioned in conjunction with primary objectives or milestones of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the country’s development.
These and other details as to the future ambitions for the PLA were detailed in a top CCP mouthpiece publication, the People’s Daily.
These objectives for modernizing the force and the plans for the role that it is expected to play are the most straightforward explanations of what CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s goals are for “building a world-class military by the middle of this century”.
The use of the label “world-class” in the article was intended to convey the message that the PLA will eventually become a global force among the top tier of military establishments worldwide.
Phraseology and specific slogans in the People’s Daily article are clear indicators that Xi plans for the PLA to dominate on the central stage of military competition and to be at the forefront of developments in weaponry, organization, and performance.
The People’s Daily Speaks
“[A world-class military] must match the PRC’s status as a global power, ensure comprehensive and effective protection of national security, and have a strong international influence,” the article reads.
It also explained the PRC must aim to achieve the world’s highest standards, “not only in the areas of weapons and equipment, organizational structure and combat systems, but also in military theory, talent development and training qualities”.
The Chinese military must evaluate its status by using the competency and effectiveness of foreign peers as a benchmark.
One of the phrases used to describe the institutions the PLA would be measured against was “especially the most powerful military”, referencing the US armed forces.
Another such reference was to “stand on equal footing with global powers and prevail in international competition.”
The article by Fu Wanjuan, from the National University of Defence Technology in Changsha, Hunan Province, was released less than a month before the PLA will demonstrate its advancements in personnel and weapons technology in a Victory Day military parade in Beijing.
The parade, scheduled for 3 September, is a red-letter date that will commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II and the end of hostilities.
The Clock is Ticking
Xi has also established some other ambiguous goals for August 2027, which will be 100 years since the founding of the PLA itself.
The article by Fu provides a detailed analysis of the Communist Party General Secretary’s directives on the PRC’s development of its armed forces.
Fu said Xi had “advanced the clock” and brought forward the goal of “basic modernization of national defense and the military” from the original objective of the midpoint of this century to 2035. He also set another centennial milestone for 2027 with a strategic goal of “building a world-class military” by the mid-21st century.
Xi has redefined the critical central points of the PLA’s modernization as “integrated development of mechanization, informatization, and intelligentization” to make the PLA’s operations consistent with the dawning era of intelligent warfare.
The future PLA is envisioned as one powered by AI, machine learning, cloud computing, and other advanced technologies of the present day, according to the People’s Daily article.
The article stated the PLA needed to consider a balanced and pragmatic strategy in the process of becoming an advanced technology force. Accordingly, the “best path might not be linear or sequential, particularly when folding in AI and other technology, known as intelligentization.”
“If we rigidly proceed step by step – completing informatization [IT structure] before moving on to intelligentization – we will fall into a new generational gap with the militaries of developed countries,” the article said, adding that conversely, moving entirely to intelligentization “overnight is equally unrealistic”.
The ongoing wave of scientific, technological, and industrial revolutions is today driving an unprecedented military revolution in military affairs.
This creates a rare historical opportunity for the PLA to build a world-class military through leapfrog development, which the article described as “overtaking on the curve and changing lanes” in a car race.
Today, an international struggle over the redistribution of power and interests is intensifying.
These conflicts grow increasingly intense over “global governance rules, regional dominance, development models and military superiority, the PLA must ensure its ability to win wars to safeguard peace,” the article concluded.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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