Doctrine Political Work

New Winds, Words from the Heart | How the Battle Is Fought Is How Political Work Must Be Conducted

新风心语丨仗怎么打，政治工作就怎么开展

PLA Daily (解放军报) 24 August 2026

Summary

A PLA political work journal article argues that political officers must abandon formalist practices—'mountains of documents and seas of meetings' and 'trace management' (痕迹管理)—and instead embed themselves directly in exercises and training, acquiring battlefield command capability and treating combat effectiveness as the hard benchmark for all political work. The piece invokes Xi's demand at the All-Army Political Work Conference that the force establish the 'combat-effectiveness standard' (战斗力标准) and draws on historical cases—the new-style rectification movement (新式整军运动), the Korean War 'cold-gun cold-cannon movement' (冷枪冷炮运动)—to argue that political work divorced from operations degrades rather than supports fighting power. The framing points to an institutional problem the PLA has acknowledged repeatedly: political cadres who manage paperwork and compliance metrics rather than contribute to warfighting, a gap this article addresses through exhortation rather than structural remedy.

Translation

Chairman Xi profoundly observed at the 27th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that the fundamental aim and the standard of evaluation for high-quality advancement of national defense and military modernization is always combat effectiveness. This important statement provides the fundamental guide for high-quality advancement of national defense and military modernization. Political work, as the lifeline of our military, must in both peacetime and wartime closely align with the central task and take root at the combat post, resolutely breaking out of the "self-referential loop" (自我循环) that drifts away from combat effectiveness. At the All-Army Political Work Conference, Chairman Xi demanded that the entire military establish four fundamentally important things: ideals and convictions, Party principles, the combat-effectiveness standard, and the authority of political work. Firmly establishing the combat-effectiveness standard answers the directional question of "whom political work serves and where it should direct its efforts" — it is not an abstract slogan but a hard benchmark for measuring the results of all work.

Political work is work done with people, and it must be carried out by going straight at real problems and live thinking (活思想). After the Liberation War shifted to strategic offensive, large numbers of newly emancipated peasants and liberated soldiers joined the People's Army. As the ranks expanded, ideological problems among some officers and soldiers became increasingly prominent. Our military creatively carried out a new-style rectification movement (新式整军运动) centered on "speaking bitterness" (诉苦) and the "three investigations" (三查). Soldiers were made to pour out their grievances and dig out the roots of their suffering, sublimating personal anguish and indignation into class consciousness. Far from affecting combat readiness, this movement enabled officers and soldiers to complete a spiritual rebirth (精神涅槃) on the ideological front, greatly enhancing the cohesion and combat effectiveness of the troops. This gives us the profound lesson that conducting political work must resolutely discard the formalist ruts (形式主义窠臼) of "mountains of documents and seas of meetings" (文山会海) and "trace management" (痕迹管理), and truly direct energy toward resolving the ideological knots and practical difficulties of officers and soldiers. Political cadres must strive to be "experts in both fields" (两个行家里手) — proficient in both politics and military affairs — proactively embedding themselves at the front lines of exercises and training, ensuring that wherever a mission advances, political work follows, so that officers and soldiers can shed their burdens, go into battle unburdened, and devote themselves single-mindedly to studying and planning for war.

Political work must closely serve the battlefield and serve combat effectiveness, ensuring that how the battle is fought is how political work is conducted. During the Long March, political work was transformed into the iron-blooded conviction of "keep marching" and the resounding pledge of "the lightly wounded do not leave the line of fire"; political cadres took the lead in charging forward, conveying a spirit of revolutionary optimism through songs and slogans. On the battlefields of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, faced with a vast disparity in equipment between the enemy and our forces, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army broadly carried out the "movement to kill the enemy and render meritorious service" (杀敌立功运动) and the "cold-gun cold-cannon movement" (冷枪冷炮运动). Political work did not confine itself to hollow slogans but combined closely with tactical innovation, accumulating small victories into great ones through "nibbling at taffy" (零敲牛皮糖), greatly inspiring the officers and soldiers' spirit of revolutionary heroism and producing a cohort of crack marksmen and gunners such as Zhang Taofang. These combat examples make clear: wartime political work must absolutely not be a matter of reading from scripts or going through the motions, but must closely track the course of operations, precisely conduct pre-battle mobilization and psychological protection, and always resonate in step with operational requirements. Political cadres must possess battlefield command capability, able at critical moments to assume command and act decisively, truly becoming front-line combatants who "support the main attack without competing for credit, add luster without adding confusion" (助攻不争功、添彩不添乱).

Looking toward the future battlefield, system-of-systems operations (体系化作战) and joint operations place higher demands on political work in the new era. Modern warfare is a system-of-systems confrontation in which all services and arms are deeply integrated and multiple dimensions are engaged simultaneously. Within a vast and precise operational system, any single link's wavering of conviction or failure of coordination could trigger a "butterfly effect," causing the operational chain to break. Political work is precisely the "adhesive" (黏合剂) that bridges inter-service differences and consolidates the system's combined strength — through unified ideological education, forming an "integrated chessboard" (一盘棋) operational mindset; through thorough and meticulous psychological services, fortifying the spiritual line of defense under extreme conditions; through precise and efficient battlefield agitation (战场鼓动), ensuring that every combat post maintains a high state of morale, so that the system truly becomes "linked" and "alive," aggregating countless individual "small selves" into the overwhelming force that defeats the enemy. Political cadres across the force must strengthen their thinking as a combat team (战斗队思想), and with solid military-political quality and a pragmatic work style, embed their work into the combat chain, continuously strengthening the lifeline, and providing a strong political guarantee for achieving the centenary goal of army building.

Original Chinese

习主席在中共中央政治局第二十七次集体学习时深刻指出，高质量推进国防和军队现代化，根本指向和检验标准始终是战斗力。这一重要论述，为高质量推进国防和军队现代化建设提供了根本遵循。政治工作作为我军的生命线，无论平时还是战时，都必须紧贴中心、扎根战位，坚决跳出游离于战斗力之外的“自我循环”。在全军政治工作会议上，习主席要求全军把理想信念、党性原则、战斗力标准、政治工作威信这四个带根本性的东西立起来。牢固立起战斗力标准，回答了政治工作“为谁服务、向哪发力”的方向之问——它不是抽象的口号，而是衡量一切工作成效的硬杠杠。政治工作是做人的工作，必须奔着现实问题和活思想去开展。解放战争转入战略进攻后，大批翻身农民、解放战士加入人民军队。队伍壮大的同时，部分官兵思想上的问题也随之凸显。我军创造性地开展以“诉苦”和“三查”为核心的新式整军运动。让战士们吐苦水、挖苦根，将个人悲愤升华为阶级觉悟。这场运动非但没有影响备战，反而使官兵在思想阵地上完成了一次精神涅槃，极大提升了部队凝聚力与战斗力。这深刻启示我们，开展政治工作必须坚决摒弃“文山会海”“痕迹管理”等形式主义窠臼，把精力真正用在解决官兵思想症结和现实困难上去。政治干部要争当“两个行家里手”——既通政治又精军事，主动嵌入演训一线，做到任务推进到哪里，政治工作就跟进到哪里，让官兵卸下包袱、轻装上阵，心无旁骛谋战研战。政治工作必须紧贴战场服务战斗力，做到仗怎么打，政治工作就怎么开展。长征途中，政治工作化作“跟着走”的铁血信念和“轻伤不下火线”的铮铮誓言，政治干部带头冲锋，用歌谣、标语传递革命乐观主义精神。抗美援朝战场上，敌我装备悬殊，志愿军广泛开展“杀敌立功运动”与“冷枪冷炮运动”。政治工作没有囿于空洞口号，而是与战术创新紧密结合，通过“零敲牛皮糖”积小胜为大胜，极大激发了官兵的革命英雄主义精神，涌现出张桃芳等一批神枪手、神炮手。这些战例鲜明昭示：战时政治工作绝不能念稿子、走过场，而要紧贴作战进程，精准开展临战动员与心理防护，始终与作战需求同频共振。政治干部必须具备战场指挥能力，危急关头能接替指挥、果断处置，真正成为一线战斗员，做到“助攻不争功、添彩不添乱”。放眼未来战场，体系化作战与联合作战对新时代政治工作提出了更高要求。现代战争是诸军兵种深度融合、多维空间同时展开的体系对抗。在庞大而精密的作战体系中，任何一个环节的信念动摇或协同失灵，都可能引发“蝴蝶效应”，导致作战链条断裂。政治工作恰恰是弥合军种差异、凝聚体系合力的“黏合剂”——通过统一的思想教育，形成“一盘棋”的作战思维；通过深入细致的心理服务，筑牢极端条件下的精神防线；通过精准高效的战场鼓动，确保每一个战位保持高昂状态，使体系真正“联”起来、“活”起来，把千千万万个“小我”汇聚成克敌制胜的磅礴伟力。广大政治干部必须强化战斗队思想，以过硬的军政素质和务实的工作作风，让工作嵌入战斗链，不断强固生命线，为实现建军一百年奋斗目标提供坚强政治保证。