Eighty years ago, the forerunner to China's armed forces or the People's Liberation Army (PLA)  was founded by the Chinese Communist Party in 1927, amid a reign of "white terror" the Kuomintang unleashed, in which thousands of communists and their sympathizers were killed by the Kuomintang.

During China's War of Liberation (1945-1949), few people anticipated that the PLA, with their "xiaomi jia buqiang" – "millet and rifle" would finally defeat the far superior US-equipped Kuomintang troops within a few years. The sweeping victory led to the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, marked by the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong's famous speech from the rostrums of Tiananmen – "the Chinese people have stood up."

When Mao Zedong, one of the founders of the PLA, reviewed the first military parade of the Chinese army in 1949, 95 percent of the weapons on display were captured in battles, and 17 fighter jets were all that the new-born PLA air force had to boast of.

In comparison, the 1999 military parade marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China witnessed great achievements made by the PLA in its drive toward modernization. 95 percent of the hi-tech weaponry demonstrated during the parade was "Made in China", and the mid-air refueling exercise in the course of the parade was a fine example of the PLA's combat preparedness.

Since the past few years, the PLA has been on a fast track to modernize its forces and combat capabilities as well as information related technical aspects. China is one of the few countries in the world today, that has acquired nuclear technology, developed a strategic missiles program and is rapidly advancing in space technology. Since 1970, China has launched more than 50 foreign and home-made satellites into orbit, and succeeded in two manned space flights in 2004 and 2006.

The modernization of national defense capabilities with advanced science and technology has been high on the agenda of the Chinese leadership. While meeting military delegates last month, Chinese president Hu Jintao, who is also chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, called for greater efforts to modernize the country's armed forces to ensure national security.

Alongside the modernization drive the army's human resource has greatly improved.

The statistics from 2002 indicated that more than 26,000 doctorate and masters degree holders are working in the military, and over 95 percent of the officers have a bachelor's degree. A large number of the PLA officers are also being sent to study at military schools in developed countries every year. Now the army is working on a strategic project to train a large cadre of troops who will be competent in operational tasks involving information technology, and help the armed forces.

In recent years as the PLA continues to get better equipped and more efficient, it is becoming smaller in size. Following a downsizing of one million soldiers in the 1980s, its overall size was further reduced by another half a million personnel between 1997 and 2000. And from 2003-2005, the army has been further reduced by 200,000 troops, bringing the total PLA strength these days to 2.3 million.

Accordingly, China's modernization of its national defense capabilities has been based on very limited resources, experts say. Despite the 17.8 percent rise in military spending this year, China's defense budget of 350.9 billion yuan (US$ 44.9 billion) is only 10.5 percent of the United States' military spending of US$ 427 billion. And the increased spending is mainly aimed at raise the salaries of the 2.3 million personnel in the military service to improve their rather low standard of living, and to enable the army to be in better shape in case of a future defensive battle under hi-tech conditions.

The goal of this modernization drive has been clear from the beginning, and it is to be more efficient in the country's self defense. "The more modernized the army becomes, the more solid will be its combat capability. And such solid capability will further benefit the cause of peace and unification," said Professor Pan Rixuan of the PLA National Defense University.

"China's military strategy has never been aggressive or offensive, and China is no threat to anyone," emphasized Prof. Pan. The efforts to modernize China's national defense are purely aimed to safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity so that the Chinese people can concentrate on economic construction in peace.

The former Defense Minister Chi Haotian summed up China's military strategy as "China has been following the strategy of active defense. China will neither join in the arms race nor will engage in military expansion. China will never seek hegemony nor will it build military bases in any foreign land."