BEIJING - China's armed forces have been piling on muscle in the past decade and are always prepared to safeguard the nation's sovereignty, security and interests.

With the international situation undergoing complex and profound changes, competition regarding international order, comprehensive national power, geopolitics and strategic space have become increasingly intense.

Conventional and non-conventional threats are interwoven, making the state security issue more complicated.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee has ordered the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to help consolidate the Party's rule, provide guarantees of security during the country's important period of strategic opportunities, support national interests, and play an important part in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.

The role of military force in the competition for comprehensive national power has been elevated and become a bargaining chip for countries to settle benefit-based relationships.

Therefore, strong military forces are required to be compatible with China's international status and security interests.

Since the 16th CPC national congress in 2002, the PLA has developed under the guidance of the "Scientific Outlook of Development," a theory put forward by President Hu Jintao that calls for comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development with people as the core.

To build a modernized force with scientific development to safeguard national interests, transitions should be focused on winning information-technology-based wars and promoting technology, the quality of armed forces personnel and innovation as well as civil-military integration.

The PLA should strengthen its ability to win regional wars, cope with multiple security threats and complete diversified military tasks.

The army's management should follow the people-oriented concept. The army should stick to its nature as a people's force and safeguard the fundamental interests of the masses. Soldiers should also play a dominant role in the development of the army.

Military training, the most basic practice for the army in peacetime, should be emphasized by the PLA and be transferred from basic mechanics to modern computer-based systems, as befitting the complex environments of today's warfare.

In the past decade, the PLA has built various training bases, equipped with hundreds of computer training systems, putting the drill ground into cyberspace.

An important part of the modernized PLA is the modernization of weaponry, such as the type-99 main battle tank, land-based cruise missiles, new-type strategic nuclear missiles, airborne early warning aircraft and new-type surface ships.

Equipped with such an array of high-tech weaponry, the PLA has formulated a defense system with second- and third-generation technology as the mainstay.

By participating in disaster relief, performing security tasks, carrying out escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and helping evacuate Chinese nationals overseas, the army has proved itself to be a reliable Great Wall and a staunch force for world peace and regional stability.