Exercises Doctrine Political Work

Strong Military Forum | Raising the "New-Content Quotient" (含新量) of Mass Military Training Competitions

强军论坛丨提升群众性练兵比武的“含新量”

PLA Daily (解放军报) 12 August 2026

Summary

A PLA commentary published in the Strong Military Forum column argues that mass military training competitions (群众性练兵比武) have drifted toward showcasing individual standouts and rehearsed performances rather than building universal proficiency, and calls for raising their '新-content quotient' (含新量) by increasing the share of subjects involving new equipment, new forces, and new domains under informatized and intelligentized warfare conditions. The piece documents a recurring institutional tension the PLA has not resolved: competition formats optimized for visible results tend to produce 'competition specialists' and 'flowery posturing' (花架子) rather than the across-the-board warfighting readiness the exercises are meant to generate. The framing points to pressure from senior leadership—invoking Xi's direct guidance on the competitions—to reorient evaluation criteria away from medals and records toward battlefield applicability, though the article identifies the problem without specifying which units or commands are most affected.

Translation

The scorching summer heat surges, and the training grounds are busy with soldiers drilling. Looking across every military camp, waves of mass military training competitions (群众性练兵比武) are cresting one after another, with officers and soldiers striving boldly and competing fiercely, presenting an encouraging scene.

Chairman Xi has emphasized the need to conduct mass military training competitions well—training every individual soldier, every type of equipment, and every category of combat element to standard—so as to consolidate the foundation of the capability to fight and win wars. Conducting mass military training competitions is a traditional method and valuable experience through which our military gives full play to military democracy (军事民主); it is an effective means of stimulating enthusiasm for training and improving training quality, and it is also an important measure for establishing a clear orientation toward combat readiness and warfighting. "Troops drilled only in theory are no match for soldiers long hardened in battle." Mass military training competitions in the new era must keep a close eye on the transformation of combat methods and the shift in the mode of combat-power generation, continuously enrich their contemporary content, explore and innovate methods and approaches, and strive to deepen and translate military training results into practice—ensuring that training yields quality and that competitions produce results.

A military theorist once said: "The overall level of professionalization of military personnel is becoming ever more important to the outcome of war. War is quietly shifting from a contest of elites to a contest of the many." Mass military training competitions differ from specialized competitions—they are not an "elite tournament" but an "all-personnel tournament," emphasizing universal participation, individual striving for excellence, and collective-wisdom training (集智练兵), with the aim of full participation, across-the-board improvement, and across-the-board proficiency. Commanders at all levels should change the practice of cultivating "individual standouts" and "single-specialty prominence"—not assembling teams to compete on the strength of top performers, not creating competition "specialists"—and instead emphasize full-unit mobilization, full-strength participation, and full-process competition, so that mass military training competitions return to their original purpose and achieve the shift from "a few excelling" to "all personnel being proficient."

To change with the times and follow the trajectory of war is the eternal law of training for combat readiness. Clausewitz once said: "To understand war, one must examine the principal characteristics of each particular era." The modes of combat and the mechanisms of victory in modern warfare have undergone profound changes. Mass military training competitions must absolutely not expend their energy on the old routines of "advancing on a broad front, consolidating at every step" or the old tricks of "close-quarters fighting, winning through numbers"—they must raise their "new-content quotient" (含新量). That is to say, they must adapt to the new requirements of informatized and intelligentized warfare (信息化智能化战争), break through traditional training competition models centered on basic skills, physical strength, and technical proficiency, increase the proportion of training subjects involving new equipment, new forces, and new domains, emphasize the building of full-process, full-element, and full-domain capabilities and means, apply training methods such as "technology+" and "network+", work hard to enhance joint operational capabilities based on the network information system (网络信息体系), and accelerate the effective supply of advanced combat power.

"To have a strong army, one must have solid armor and sharp weapons, and conduct real selection and real training." Whether mass military training competitions are conducted well should be judged not only by how many medals are won or how many records are broken, but more importantly by whether the content trained, the concepts behind the training, and the methods of training will hold up on the future battlefield. "If you cannot win on the battlefield, everything else amounts to zero." If mass military training competitions are not closely integrated with actual combat, then no matter how great the fanfare or how much is invested, it can only be futile effort—"working hard but harvesting no grain." Commanders at all levels must adhere to the starting point of actual combat needs, temper and forge the troops under difficult and strict conditions, proceed from the most difficult and complex circumstances, tighten the standards of difficulty, intensity, and danger, emphasize live-fire, live-drop, and live-detonation subjects, earnestly compete in genuine skills and hard capabilities, refrain from "flowery posturing" (花架子) and "false displays" (假把式), refrain from competing for the sake of spectators, and refrain from staging championship tournaments. Substantively elevate the battlefield smoke-and-fire atmosphere (硝烟味) of mass military training competitions, and lead officers and soldiers to answer well the "question of winning wars" (胜战之问) through solid capabilities and concrete action.

Original Chinese

酷暑热浪涌，沙场练兵忙。放眼座座军营，一场场群众性练兵比武活动高潮迭起，广大官兵奋勇争先、激烈比拼，呈现出一派喜人景象。习主席强调，抓好群众性练兵比武，把每一个单兵、每一型装备、每一类作战要素训到位，夯实打胜仗能力基础。开展群众性练兵比武，是我军发扬军事民主的传统方法和宝贵经验，是激发练兵热情、提高训练质量的有效抓手，也是立起备战打仗鲜明导向的重要举措。“素教之卒，莫如久战之兵。”新时代群众性练兵比武必须紧盯作战方式变革和战斗力生成模式转变，不断丰富时代内涵，探索创新方法路子，努力促进军事训练成果深化转化，确保练出质量、比出效益。一名军事理论家曾说：“军队人员的整体专业化水平对战争胜负越发重要。战争，正悄悄从精英战向群英战转变。”群众性练兵比武与专业比武不同，不是“精英赛”，而是“全员赛”，注重个个参与、人人争先、集智练兵，旨在全员参与、全面提高、全面过硬。各级指挥员应改变“个人冒尖”“单项突出”的做法，不拉队伍拼尖子、不搞比武“专业户”，突出成建制拉动、全员额参加、全过程比拼，使群众性练兵比武回归本源，实现从“少数拔尖”到“全员过硬”的转变。跟着时代变、贴着战争走，是练兵备战的永恒法则。克劳塞维茨曾说：“要想通晓战争，必须审视一下每个特定时代的主要特征。”现代战争作战样式、制胜机理已发生深刻变化，群众性练兵比武绝不能把力气用在那些“一线平推，步步为营”的老套路、“短兵相接，以量取胜”的老招数上，必须提升其“含新量”。也就是适应信息化智能化战争新要求，突破基础型、力量型、技能型等传统练兵比武模式，加大新装备新力量新领域训练课目的比重，突出全过程、全要素、全领域手段和能力建设，运用“科技+”“网络+”等训练方法，着力增强基于网络信息体系的联合作战能力，加快先进战斗力有效供给。 “欲得强兵，必须坚甲利器，实选实练。”群众性练兵比武开展得好不好，不仅要看收获多少枚奖牌、打破多少项纪录，更要看练的内容、练的理念、练的方法在未来战场是否顶用。“战场打不赢，一切等于零。”群众性练兵比武如果与实战结合不紧密，声势再大、投入再多，也只能是“辛辛苦苦不打粮食”的无用功。各级指挥员要坚持从实战需要出发，从难从严摔打磨砺部队，立足最困难最复杂的情况，卡紧难度、强度、险度标尺，突出实打、实投、实爆课目，扎扎实实比真功夫、硬本领，不搞“花架子”“假把式”，不搞比为看，不搞锦标赛，切实提升群众性练兵比武的硝烟味，带领官兵以过硬本领和实际行动回答好“胜战之问”。