Storming the Centenary of Army Building · New Appearance, New Actions | "I Am Willing to Be the 'Intelligent Armor' That Guards Our Soldiers"
"I Am Willing to Be the 'Intelligent Armor' That Guards Our Soldiers"
— A Profile of Chen Junxian, Civilian Personnel of the Academy of Military Sciences
■ China Military Online Reporters He Jiaying, Lin Qin, Du Shengzhi
Chen Junxian at work. Photo provided by the interviewee
In temperatures of more than thirty degrees below zero Celsius in Mohe, a female civilian employee patrolled through knee-deep snow alongside border defense soldiers. At the northernmost point of the motherland, in a world of ice and snow, a live-environment equipment field test against extreme conditions was underway.
"Dr. Chen, didn't you already complete the full patrol route with the patrol team last time? You don't need to come along this time, do you?" the political instructor asked.
Chen Junxian carefully inspected the latest-iteration thermal suit she was wearing. "The thermal performance of the materials has been improved this time. I have to wear it and walk the route again before I can know the actual effect."
While recording data in the field, even the information terminals failed due to the extreme cold. The soldiers urged her: "Dr. Chen, it's too cold outside. Please rest — we'll report the situation to you." She smiled, waved them off, and continued recording data.
A perseverance and tenacity etched into the bone is a beacon on the journey toward one's dream. During the live-simulation trials in Mohe, Chen Junxian ate and trained alongside the soldiers. She has always believed that "no matter how perfect the data from the laboratory, it cannot match a soldier saying 'warm and lightweight.'"
"The extreme battlefield environment is complex and ever-changing. I am willing to be that layer of 'intelligent armor' (智能铠甲) that guards our soldiers." Dressed in "peacock blue" and rooted at the front lines of scientific research, Chen Junxian's words are filled with the resolve to advance toward war.
"If you're going to do something, do what the country needs most; if you're going to go somewhere, go where the motherland and the people need you most"
"There are always more solutions than difficulties — no matter how tough the bone, we must gnaw through it!" On a major project, Chen Junxian spent her days chasing down the project lead with questions and engaging in intense discussions with the team, and her nights buried in the literature. After several months, the project was successfully accepted. The project lead told reporters: "Little Chen's fighting spirit — never conceding, never giving up — is worth learning from by all young people."
Where does this spirit of Chen Junxian's come from?
Chen Junxian is a post-1990s generation member who grew up in the Central Plains amid a strong atmosphere of support for the military, and from childhood harbored a longing for the national defense cause. Pursuing academics steadily, she completed a combined master's-doctoral program at Peking University and had already built a deep foundation in the field of polymer materials.
"Those performance curves verified over and over again — were they really only meant to add a polished line to a résumé?" On the eve of graduation, with options including overseas advanced study, teaching at a prestigious university, and employment at a central state-owned enterprise, Chen Junxian stood at a crossroads that many envied. But she told reporters candidly that at the time she always felt an emptiness in her heart.
On May 2, 2018, Chairman Xi Jinping visited Peking University for an inspection. Chen Junxian, serving as Party branch secretary of the doctoral student branch of the Department of Polymer Chemistry and Physics, was present to hear his guidance. "The exhortation to 'love the country, strengthen one's resolve, seek truth, and put it into practice' (爱国、励志、求真、力行) was like a beam of light piercing through the fog." Chairman Xi's encouragement awakened her: "Scientific research capability is not a bargaining chip to be sold to the highest bidder. If you're going to do something, do what the country needs most for its construction; if you're going to go somewhere, go where the motherland and the people need you most."
In 2019, Chen Junxian gave up a position at a central state-owned enterprise research institute and resolutely chose to put on the "peacock blue."
Yet, stepping into the front lines, she discovered that the weight of the cause of strengthening the military far exceeded what she had imagined. Shortly after joining, Chen Junxian went to a certain unit to participate in trial use and testing of a certain system, which made her understand all the more clearly how important the support equipment research and development work she was engaged in truly was. After the trials concluded, she compiled and produced 3 categories and 18 items of improvement and optimization recommendations along with implementation plans.
"Scientific research must keep its finger on the pulse of the battlefield!" Her path of scientific research and hard fighting thus acquired a firm objective — to drive the equipment system to iterate and upgrade toward greater precision, quality, and strength; to lay a solid hardware foundation for new-quality combat capability (新质战斗力) construction from the equipment end; and to translate technological empowerment into real, tangible battlefield capability.
"Go to the place closest to the soldiers, closest to the battlefield"
Chen Junxian (first from right) exchanging views with grassroots officers and soldiers on equipment trial use. Photo provided by the interviewee
On Chen Junxian's office desk, two things are always present: a notebook annotated with various environmental parameters, and a map of China densely marked with test sites.
From the desert Gobi to the forested snowfields, from high-altitude outposts to island reefs, every marked point strings together the footprints of her research oriented toward war.
Her path of military scientific research has always made its choices around "battlefield requirements." In May 2021, she rushed to a certain test site where the heat on top of a command vehicle was enough to cook an egg. She climbed up again and again to install equipment, and dug trenches in the sand meter by meter while hauling heavy cables. Wind and sand covered her clothes and filled her mouth and nose; food just set on the table was immediately coated in a layer of sand and grit. She simply turned away, quickly shoveled down a few bites, and immediately threw herself back into work.
That bookish female doctoral graduate — after a week, her camouflage uniform was covered in grease and sand, her skin darkened by the sun, yet her gaze grew ever more resolute.
"No! Absolutely not! Dr. Chen cannot leave! She knows this data link best — if she leaves, the data relay will go down!" When she needed to withdraw early to participate in another task, the on-site commander waved his hands in a panic.
That blunt recognition was the finest commendation for her perseverance and dedication.
"No matter how impressive the results from the laboratory, if they cannot serve the battlefield, they are empty talk. Go to the place closest to the soldiers, closest to the battlefield!" Chen Junxian told reporters that breaking the traditional "laboratory self-circulation" (实验室自循环) research model — ensuring that every materials development effort and every set of performance parameters is aligned with actual combat requirements — is the only way to fulfill the mission requirements that the cause of strengthening the military in the new era places on scientific researchers.
"Every additional trial, every additional step forward, brings us one fraction closer to a breakthrough and one step closer to success"
"Dr. Chen, these problems are too difficult — should we set them aside for now?" Faced with successive technical barriers in a certain research topic, team members admitted their confidence was flagging. But each time, Chen Junxian's gaze was steady: "Every difficult problem is a fortification blocking the road forward. Every additional trial, every additional step forward, brings us one fraction closer to a breakthrough and one step closer to success."
Capability is tested at the front lines; mission is demonstrated at critical moments. In early 2025, confronted with the reality of heavy tasks, tight timelines, and high technical difficulty, the research institute broke with convention and appointed the young Chen Junxian as project lead for a major support equipment project.
"The value and role of civilian personnel are becoming increasingly prominent. We trust her — not only because of her professional foundation, but also because of her hard-fighting drive and sense of responsibility." said Ma Tian, director of the research institute.
"The moment I accepted the task, I knew what I was carrying on my shoulders was the lives and safety of our soldiers," Chen Junxian recalled. In order to understand the parameter patterns of different extreme environments, she led a team to visit more than 20 grassroots units and scientific research institutes, collecting and organizing over a thousand sets of field measurement data. When a manufacturer insisted that its plan met the standards in theory, she invited the technicians to enter a low-temperature chamber together for actual measurement, using firsthand experience to drive plan optimization.
She sought breakthroughs through countless trials. Research office director Liu Kaifeng told reporters: "Facing new trends, she proactively breaks through the boundaries of her specialty and learns from scratch." When the reporter asked whether this spirit of proactive breakthrough was the "secret" to her rapid growth, Chen Junxian replied: "It's not that I am particularly special — it's that I am standing on the shoulders of giants." The research office she belongs to has been honored with multiple awards including a first-class prize for Military Scientific and Technological Progress and a second-class prize for Military Technological Invention. The "giants" she speaks of are precisely this research office team — decorated with honors and united in pressing forward. As the support equipment project entered its critical assault phase, the lights in the office were often on through the night, with members buried in mountains of demonstration reports and technical materials; experts patiently broke down technical difficulties for younger colleagues; to settle on the optimal technical plan, members often argued until their faces flushed red, and after fully airing their views, would pat each other on the shoulder and sit down side by side to sort through ideas and refine details together, steadily advancing the project's key milestones. "The team's support gave me the confidence to tackle hard problems; the team's trust gave me the space to act with a free hand," Chen Junxian said.
Chen Junxian leads her team in conducting equipment experiments in Mohe. Photo provided by the interviewee
"In the future, we will add new momentum to new-quality combat capability (新质战斗力) construction through intelligentized (智能化) upgrades." As Chen Junxian said this, she raised her eyes toward the night sky outside the window — a sky full of stars, linking the laboratory to front-line units, reflecting the shared patriotic hearts of scientific researchers and grassroots officers and soldiers alike.