By Jia Fei-mao | 2025-03-17

China's Central Military Commission (CMC), the country's top decision-making body on defense and security, is promoting newly revised laws involving the People's Liberation Army (PLA) set to come into effect next month.

The three revised regulations -- "Regulations on Internal Affairs of the PLA of China," the "Regulations on Discipline of the PLA of China," and the "Regulations on Formations of the PLA of China" -- are collectively known as the Common Regulations.

The revisions are meant to push the PLA into completing the building of "world-class armed forces" by the middle of this century, according to China's official media outlets.

They are seen as a significant step in Chinese President Xi Jinping's military reform efforts.

Xi signed the Common Regulations in February, and the revisions are set to come into effect on April 1.

Notably, "war readiness" and "warfighting" are the frequently occurring keywords in this revision.

The revised Common Regulations fully reflect Xi's thought on "governing the military according to law," Anushka Saxena, an analyst at India's Takshashila Institution, wrote in The Diplomat in February.

The revisions promote systematic military management with law as the basis and emphasizes combat effectiveness as the most important task of the armed forces, she noted.

The latest revision further refines the armed forces' disciplinary requirements during peacetime, wartime and non-war military actions.

Improving readiness

The regulations emphasize preparations for war with actual combat at the core of all training and management, ensuring greater stability in the PLA's political work, discipline and operational capabilities and enhancing its combat readiness.

In order for China to focus on war readiness and warfighting and realize the centennial goal of building a strong army by 2049, the revised Common Regulations are more adapted to the troops' training and combat readiness requirements, highlight the main responsibilities of combat preparedness and reinforce the PLA's core mission of war readiness.

The updated language places stronger emphasis on combat readiness and overseas task forces, reported the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, in February.

The revised regulations require soldiers to be "be prepared for war at any time."

They stress the importance of studying military affairs, understanding warfare and strengthening the ability to combat and win wars.

Xi often demands the "capacity to fight and win wars" when inspecting the armed forces, Chen Shih-min, a political scientist at National Taiwan University, told Focus in an interview.

The revised Common Regulations are a sign of the PLA preparing for war, said Chen.

Xi may see external conflict as a way to stoke nationalism and consolidate his political standing for a possible fourth term, said Chen.

"Xi Jinping has been in power for over a decade. If you ask people in China, how many would say Xi has performed better than Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin? China is now facing mounting internal and external difficulties, and the people who are dissatisfied with Xi Jinping are too many to enumerate."

Xi became general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the CMC in 2012. He broke convention by abolishing term limits through constitutional amendment and secured his third term at the 20th CPC National Congress in 2022.

If Xi still wants a fourth term, launching limited external conflict would be the easiest way to consolidate his political legitimacy, Chen said.

Historical legacy

The revision of the Common Regulations is linked to Chinese leaders' shaping of historical legacies, Saxena wrote.

Jiang revised the Common Regulations three times to better inculcate the "objective reality" of the new situations and internal disciplinary challenges faced by the PLA at the time.

Hu made a revision once in 2011, incorporating the concept that the PLA must be prepared to fight and win "local wars."

This is Xi's second revision of the Common Regulations.

It aligns with his military reform agenda, which aims to enhance the PLA's modern operational capabilities and thus move the PLA closer to becoming a "world-class armed force" by 2049, wrote Saxena.

The move "opens up a new chapter in the great journey of strengthening and invigorating the armed forces," the PLA Daily reported in March.