On November 28, 2025, the Top-Talent Training Program in Historical Politics, the Wargame Program of the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China, together with the Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security, Renmin University of China, co-hosted a special lecture themed "China's Military Modernization in the 1950s".
This lecture was held to mark the publication of Embarking on a New Journey of Regularization and Modernization: A Study on Several Issues of the Military Reform of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the 1950s, a new book by Associate Research Fellow Yan Hui from the Academy of Military Sciences. It brought together numerous experts and scholars from military and civilian universities and research institutions, aiming to sort out the course of military reform in the early days of the People's Republic of China, explore the contemporary value of research on military and war history, and provide a historical reference for the current modernization of national defense and the armed forces.
The lecture was hosted by Lecturer Wu Di from the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, with the participation of experts and scholars from the Academy of Military Sciences, the Central Party School, Peking University and other institutions, as well as teachers and students of the university.
At the outset of the lecture, Vice Dean Li Chen from the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China delivered a welcome address on behalf of the organizers. He emphasized that research on military and war history constitutes a crucial foundation for strategic studies, and its systematic exploration originated from the establishment of the general staff system of modern and contemporary armed forces—specifically, the clear commitment to drawing lessons from historical research to serve the development of armed forces building and the preparation for future wars. This research field has also been integrated into the teaching and research systems of relevant disciplines in universities.
At the outset of the lecture, Vice Dean Li Chen from the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China delivered a welcome address on behalf of the organizers. He emphasized that research on military and war history constitutes a crucial foundation for strategic studies, and its systematic exploration originated from the establishment of the general staff system of modern and contemporary armed forces—specifically, the clear commitment to drawing lessons from historical research to serve the development of armed forces building and the preparation for future wars. This research field has also been integrated into the teaching and research systems of relevant disciplines in universities.
In the keynote speech session, Associate Research Fellow Yan Hui from the Academy of Military Sciences centered her talk on her new book and systematically elaborated on the core topics of the modernization reform of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the 1950s. She unfolded her discussion from four dimensions: historical status, driving forces for reform, reform content and reform achievements, pointing out that the 1950s was a critical period for China to shift from revolutionary state-founding to state governance, and also the starting point for the PLA to transform from a guerrilla army composed mainly of peasants into a regularized and modernized national defense force, with its reform being the logical origin of China's military modernization.
She analyzed the four major driving forces behind the reform, including the transformation of the military's missions and tasks, the deepened understanding by the Party of the laws of army building in peacetime, the support from Soviet aid, and the impetus from the early drive for the Four Modernizations. She focused on interpreting the development process of the command and leadership system, which evolved from the "Three General Departments" to the "Eight General Departments" and then back to the "Three General Departments"; the optimization of the talent structure through initiatives such as the "Campaign for Universal Cultural Advancement", "Senior military officers leading the establishment of military academies", "Efforts to recruit overseas students back to China", and "Hundreds of thousands of students joining the military"; as well as the institutional reforms of the compulsory military service system, the military rank system and the salary system. She summarized the reform achievements with the phrase "Laying a solid foundation and shaping the institutional framework, formulating and implementing regulations and systems", noting that through the reform, the PLA realized a leap from a single-service force to a combined arms force of multiple services and arms, its weapons and equipment completed a qualitative transformation from a "hodgepodge of foreign makes" to standardization, forged a contingent of military personnel who were both politically loyal and professionally competent, and emerged as a major military power with one of the top military strengths worldwide at that time.
In the panel discussion session, numerous experts and scholars further deepened the deliberations from diverse perspectives.
Research Fellow Guo Zhigang from the Academy of Military Sciences pointed out that the research on the military history of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been closely linked to combat operations since the Red Army period. In 1930, the General Staff Office of the General Headquarters of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army First Front Army was already responsible for compiling combat experience. A special committee was set up in 1931 to prepare for the compilation of the Red Army's war history. When the Academy of Military Sciences was founded in 1958, research on military and war history was also identified as a key research area.
He affirmed the insights into the 1950s presented in Associate Research Fellow Yan Hui's new book from the three dimensions of weapons and equipment, talent development, and organizational structure and establishment. He pointed out that the military modernization drive in the 1950s should be further studied within the long timeframe of China's modern military transformation, and it is necessary to strike a balance between learning from the Soviet experience and upholding and carrying forward the fine traditions of the PLA itself.
Professor Qi Xiaolin from the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China spoke highly of the academic value of Associate Research Fellow Yan Hui's new book, which presents a panoramic account of the reform, and believed that it is highly enlightening for a renewed understanding of the history of the 1950s. He pointed out that traditional historical circles have mostly focused on the field of political history in their research on the 1950s, and such research needs to be expanded to multiple fields including military history. He suggested that follow-up research should conduct an in-depth and detailed study on issues such as the development of the armed services and arms, and the construction of military academies.
Associate Professor Li Chen argued that the regularization and modernization of China's military in the 1950s cannot be viewed in isolation, but should be examined against the backdrop of the international military history of the Cold War—particularly the first round of military modernization of the Cold War launched by the superpowers, which centered on nuclear weapons, and the impact of the evolution of military strategic thinking and organizational structures on China's military modernization. Second, attention should be paid to the dual impacts of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea: it not only drove the large-scale replacement of Soviet weapons and the rapid development of technical arms, but also exerted an influence on the resource allocation of imported equipment and the development path of the national defense industry in the post-war period. Third, it is also necessary to focus on the particularities of the Sino-Soviet alliance. Having accumulated rich experience and formed its own traditions during the war years, the Chinese military faced the strategic environment of the Cold War in East Asia and had differences with the Soviet military in terms of strategic and operational thinking as well as regulations and systems. The scale of China's military also meant that the Sino-Soviet alliance could not undertake all aspects of China's national defense modernization on its own after the Korean War. All these factors prompted the Chinese military to take a path of independent innovation and development while learning from and drawing on the advanced experience of the Soviet Union.
Associate Professor Qi Haotian from Peking University first affirmed that Associate Research Fellow Yan Hui's new book is comprehensive and systematic, which is of great benefit to the study of military modernization in the 1950s. Focusing on the second half of the 1950s, he approached the issue from three perspectives: First, "war and peace". Taking the setbacks encountered in the transformation of the Air Force for homeland air defense and Chairman Mao's call to eliminate the "four undesirable tendencies" in the military as examples, he illustrated the transformation pressure brought about by changes in the internal and external security environment during this period. Second, the overall coordination of the economy and national defense. Chairman Mao proposed reducing military expenditure in On the Ten Major Relationships, and initial exploration of military-civilian integration was also carried out in the national defense industry in 1958. Third, the interaction between military regularization, modernization and the overall national situation. The adjustment of the military service system and the all-people militia movement from 1957 to 1958 reflected the characteristics of the times back then.
This lecture is grounded in a solid foundation of military history and features a distinct focus on contemporary relevance. It has clarified for the teachers and students present the foundational course and reform logic of China's military modernization in the 1950s, and also provided an insightful academic perspective for strategic research that bridges historical insights with real-world practice.