Luo Yuan： China’s military modernization has entered a new stage, and new combat effectiveness has become a growth point.

(The author is the executive vice president, secretary general and major general of China Strategic Culture Promotion Association)

Editor’s Note: Keeping pace with the times and developing scientifically is not only the fundamental requirement for deepening the reform of national defense and the army at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, but also the fundamental way for the development of new combat forces in the army. The resolution of the plenary session on deepening the reform of national defense and the army is to break the inherent fetters of the development of new-quality combat effectiveness, not only to accurately correct the direction angle of military modernization, but also to significantly improve the acceleration of the generation of new-quality combat effectiveness.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee clearly put forward the task of deepening the reform of national defense and the army, and emphasized that we should focus on building a people’s army that listens to the party’s command, can win battles, and has a good style of work. We should focus on solving the outstanding contradictions and problems that restrict the development of national defense and the army, innovate and develop military theory, strengthen military strategic guidance, improve military strategic guidelines in the new period, and build a modern military force system with China characteristics. This is not only a new situation of military reform in the new era and situation of our army, but also indicates that the modernization of China’s army has entered a new stage, and the new combat effectiveness has become a new growth point.

一、设立国家安全委员会有利于在国家层面协调新质战斗力生成的优势资源

习主席在关于设立国家安全委员会的说明中强调，国家安全和社会稳定是改革发展的前提。当前，一方面，我国面临对外维护国家主权、安全、发展利益，对内维护政治安全和社会稳定的双重压力，各种可以预见和难以预见的风险因素明显增多。另一方面，我们的安全工作体制机制还不能适应维护国家安全的需要，尤其是对社会网络化带来国家安全风险的认识不足，也极大地加剧了国家安全需求和能力之间的矛盾。在这个时候，以大胆改革的决心搭建一个强有力的平台统筹国家安全工作，设立国家安全委员会，是国家最高层面对时代特征的最新领悟，也为发展新质战斗力提供了战略定力。下一步，国家安全委员会将围绕战略职责，加紧制定和实施国家安全战略，推进国家安全法治建设，制定国家安全工作方针政策，研究解决国家安全工作中的重大问题。其中，重大问题之一就是结合时代网络化特征，认清国家安全面临的新危险，发挥制度优势，在国家战略层面，统一整合国家网络资源，加快提升网络新质战斗力的步伐，进而全面维护网络空间国家主权、安全和发展利益。

二、加快完善互联网管理领导体制明确了新质战斗力聚焦网络和信息安全

互联网管理是改革开放的大事情。习主席在关于全会决议的说明中专门指出，“网络和信息安全牵涉到国家安全和社会稳定，是我们面临的新的综合性挑战”。党的十八大报告也明确提出，“高度关注海洋、太空、网络空间安全”、“增强基于信息系统的体系作战能力”。由此来看，党中央一贯坚持“紧跟世界新军事革命加速发展的潮流，积极稳妥进行国防和军队改革，推动中国特色军事变革深入发展”。网络空间作为一个全新的作战领域已经成为我军新质战斗力的一个重要增长点。目前的问题在于，其一，网络空间军民融合程度前所未有，网络空间新质战斗力提升离不开军民融合，需要在国家层面上整体协调。其二，面对互联网技术的飞速发展和应用水平的不断提升，现行管理体制存在明显弊端，主要是多头管理、职能交叉、权责不一、效率不高的实际情况。这些直接影响整体网络空间防御能力的提升。其三，网络空间不仅承载着新质战斗力，还承载着新质生产力、文化力，事关国家安全和社会稳定。当前，涉及国计民生的基础设施越来越多地依赖网络运行，基于信息系统的作战体系越来越多地依靠网络支撑。"Especially in the face of the rapid growth of users of social networks and instant messaging tools such as Weibo and WeChat, which spread quickly, have great influence, have wide coverage and strong social mobilization ability, how to strengthen the legal construction of the network and guide public opinion to ensure the order of network information dissemination has become a prominent problem in reality before us." Network and information security has become a major issue related to national security and social stability. The Third Plenary Session clearly stated that "accelerating the improvement of the Internet management leadership system" will make us focus more on the new growth point of network and information security, and comprehensively optimize the system capabilities of the military based on information systems.

Third, the "three major tasks" of deepening national defense and military reform contain room for the development of new combat effectiveness.

The resolution of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee clearly put forward the "three major tasks" of deepening the reform of national defense and the army. First, deepening the restructuring and reform of the military system will strengthen the accelerated development of new combat forces. The resolution emphasizes promoting the reform of the leadership management system and optimizing the functional allocation and institutional setup of the leading organs at the headquarters of the Central Military Commission. In particular, improving the leadership system of new combat forces will directly boost the development of new combat effectiveness, promote the optimization of military scale structure, adjust and improve the proportion of services and arms, and accelerate the construction of new combat forces. New combat forces such as cyber warfare will develop strongly. Second, promoting the adjustment and reform of the military policy system will open the door for the growth of new combat effectiveness. At present, a major problem facing the growth of new combat effectiveness such as cyberspace is the problem of talents. The Third Plenary Session put forward the idea of "improving and perfecting the military human resources policy system that meets the needs of military functions and tasks and the innovation of national policy system", which will help solve the contradiction between supply and demand of urgently needed talents and cutting-edge talents and attract top talents to the army. Third, promoting the in-depth development of integration of defense and civilian technologies will form the best model for the growth of new quality combat effectiveness. New combat fields such as cyberspace are embodied in three aspects: emerging fields, innovative models and innovative technologies. The advantages of all this are more in the local area than in the army. Therefore, "establishing a unified leadership, military-civilian coordination, demand docking and resource sharing mechanism to promote the development of integration of defense and civilian technologies at the national level" and "reforming and perfecting the policy system of cultivating military talents relying on national education" are major reforms to effectively utilize national resources and accelerate the development of new quality combat effectiveness of the army.It will substantially push emerging combat fields such as cyberspace into a new stage of rapid development of capabilities.

(Source: China Information Security)