Doctrine Personnel Political Work

Great Wall Watchtower | Anchor to Revolutionization and Professionalization to Build a Strong Talent Force

长城瞭望丨锚定革命化专业化建强人才队伍

PLA Daily (解放军报) 21 May 2026

Summary

At the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress, Xi Jinping directed the PLA and People's Armed Police to build a talent force anchored to 革命化 (revolutionization) and 专业化 (professionalization), and this commentary by Wei Ping elaborates the institutional response, calling for embedding political vetting throughout talent selection and accelerating cultivation of joint operations command, new-type operational forces, and high-level scientific and technological innovation personnel. The article documents a persistent tension the PLA acknowledges openly: professionalization demands are outpacing the current human resource management system, with named shortfalls in emerging-domain talent, management refinement, and policy effectiveness. The framing points to the 15th Five-Year Plan period as a pressure point where the PLA believes it must close those gaps before a modernization deadline, though the article specifies no concrete organizational changes or resource commitments that would indicate how.

Translation

Anchor to Revolutionization and Professionalization to Build a Strong Talent Force

■ Wei Ping

When talent is strong, the cause is strong; when talent flourishes, the military flourishes. When Chairman Xi attended the plenary session of the PLA and People's Armed Police Forces delegation to the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress, he emphasized the need to strengthen the building of a revolutionized (革命化) and professionalized (专业化) talent force. To implement Chairman Xi's important directives and requirements, we must work hard to forge revolutionized and professionalized talent, transform the talent advantage into a victory advantage, and solidify the "first resource" for comprehensively building a world-class military and winning future wars.

People are the core element of combat power and the decisive factor in modernization. Revolutionization determines the political character, loyalty, and value pursuits of talent; professionalization underpins talent's ability to win battles, fulfill duties, and innovate. The two are mutually reinforcing and inseparable—they cannot be split apart, nor can either be neglected. Only by anchoring to revolutionization and professionalization and driving them forward together, accelerating the modernization of military personnel, and seizing the strategic initiative in talent competition can we better bring into play the leading and supporting role of talent in the cause of military strengthening, injecting inexhaustible momentum into the new-era cause of military strengthening.

Talent resources are the foremost resource; the talent advantage is the greatest advantage. At present, a new round of technological revolution and military revolution is advancing rapidly, and major changes are occurring in concepts, elements, and methods of achieving battlefield victory (制胜观念、制胜要素、制胜方式), placing higher demands on cultivating and employing talent focused on war preparedness and fighting. We must be clear-eyed that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (十五五时期), our military must, building on the achievement of the centenary goal of army building, press forward toward the goal of basically realizing national defense and military modernization—and we are more urgently in need of talent than at any point in history. The new situation of international strategic competition, the new trend of evolving forms of warfare, and the new circumstances of the military-strengthening cause all urgently require us to focus on revolutionization and professionalization to consolidate the talent foundation, and to drive a comprehensive transformation and upgrade of military personnel in terms of capability and quality, structural layout, and development and management.

The military wields the gun; revolutionization is the first problem that must be solved in talent force building. In 2021, Chairman Xi stated at the Central Military Commission Talent Work Conference that the political standard is the foremost standard for our military's talent, and political requirements are the most fundamental requirements for our military's talent. Since the People's Army was born, political quality has always been the primary consideration for talent—from emphasizing that talent must have "political foresight" during the New Democratic Revolution period, to emphasizing that talent must "understand politics, understand the profession, be both red and expert (又红又专)" during the socialist revolution and construction period; from emphasizing that the "Four Transformations (四化)" of talent must first be "revolutionization" during the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, to emphasizing since the new era that talent must be "absolutely rock-solid politically (政治上绝对过硬)." History and practice have proven that the more professionalized the talent force, the more it must be revolutionized; the more modernized the weapons and equipment, the more they must be in the hands of a revolutionized talent force.

Professionalization means strengthening the professional competence of military talent and enhancing core military capabilities. Under the new situation, our military's talent work still faces a series of new contradictions and challenges, most prominently: insufficient talent in emerging domains, human resource management that is not yet refined enough, and the comprehensive effectiveness of policies and systems that still needs to be improved. Only by adhering to the combat effectiveness standard, focusing on cultivating talent for actual combat preparation, strengthening the pull of operational requirements, ensuring that whatever kind of people fighting requires is the kind of people cultivated and employed, precisely aligning the talent supply side with the battlefield demand side, and matching talent's professional capabilities with the requirements of advanced combat power building, can we lead the troops to train hard and prepare genuinely, dare to fight and fight well, and answer the "question of winning battles (胜战之问)," the "question of value (价值之问)," and the "interrogation of competence (本领拷问)."

Politically unqualified means unqualified in everything; politically unreliable means the greater the ability, the greater the harm. At all levels, we must persistently use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to forge unity of mind and soul, deeply study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on strengthening the military, combine the improvement of political quality with the cultivation of overall quality, combine the inculcation of advanced thought with the study of cultural knowledge, and combine education and guidance with practical training, so as to firmly establish the ideological foundation for officers and soldiers to listen to the Party and follow the Party. At the same time, the political standard must be embedded throughout the entire process of talent selection, cultivation, and employment; talent must be cultivated, assessed, and employed from a political standpoint; loyalty identification and political assessment work must be strengthened; and it must be ensured that the Party truly and firmly controls the troops ideologically, politically, and organizationally.

Soldiers are born for war; talent is cultivated for war. On the surface, modern warfare is a contest of information and firepower; in reality, it is a competition of professionalized talent. At all levels, we should keep a close eye on changes in technology, changes in warfare, and changes in the adversary; deeply study the mechanisms of victory in modern warfare; accelerate the improvement of the new integrated trinity military talent cultivation system (三位一体新型军事人才培养体系); focus on cultivating key talent critical to the generation of system-of-systems operational capabilities (体系作战能力), transformation and development, and the improvement of combat readiness levels; prioritize cultivating urgently needed talent most needed for scientific and technological innovation, most lacking in military training, and most urgently required for equipment management; and extraordinarily cultivate joint operations command talent, new-type operational forces talent, high-level scientific and technological innovation talent, and high-caliber strategic management talent—ensuring that the modernization of military personnel achieves major progress and that talent development in key domains achieves major breakthroughs.

The report to the 20th Party Congress stated: "Innovate military human resource management." Strengthening the building of a revolutionized and professionalized talent force likewise requires strengthening the centralized and unified management of military human resources, further activating military human resources, promoting the release of talent vitality and the realization of effectiveness, and converting these into real combat power. In particular, we must continuously deepen reform of military human resource policies and systems, systematically plan career development paths for all categories of personnel, strengthen the supporting development of policies and systems, form a talent cultivation and employment model with our military's distinctive characteristics, allow the creative vitality of all types of talent to burst forth in competition and their wisdom and intelligence to flow fully, and ensure that talent receives optimal allocation and brings maximum effectiveness to bear.

Original Chinese

锚定革命化专业化建强人才队伍 ■韦平人才强则事业强，人才兴则军队兴。习主席在出席十四届全国人大四次会议解放军和武警部队代表团全体会议时强调，要加强革命化专业化人才队伍建设。贯彻落实习主席的重要部署和指示要求，我们必须努力锻造革命化专业化人才，将人才优势转化为制胜优势，为全面建成世界一流军队和制胜未来厚实“第一资源”。人是战斗力核心要素，也是现代化建设的决定性因素。革命化决定人才的政治底色、忠诚品格与价值追求，专业化支撑人才的打赢能力、履职本领与创新水平，二者相辅相成、密不可分，既不能割裂，也不可偏废。只有锚定革命化专业化同向发力，加快军事人员现代化，掌握人才竞争战略主动权，才能更好发挥人才对强军事业的引领和支撑作用，为新时代强军事业注入不竭动力。人才资源是第一资源，人才优势是最大优势。当前，新一轮科技革命和军事革命日新月异，战争制胜观念、制胜要素、制胜方式发生重大变化，对聚焦备战打仗培养和使用人才提出了更高要求。尤须清醒看到，“十五五”时期，我军要在实现建军一百年奋斗目标的基础上，朝着基本实现国防和军队现代化的目标砥砺前行，比历史上任何时期都更加渴求人才。国际战略竞争新形势、战争形态演变新态势、强军事业发展新情况，都迫切需要我们聚焦革命化专业化夯实人才根基，推动军事人员能力素质、结构布局、开发管理全面转型升级。军队是拿枪杆子的，革命化是人才队伍建设首先要解决的问题。2021年，习主席在中央军委人才工作会议上指出，政治标准是我军人才第一位的标准，政治要求是对我军人才最根本的要求。人民军队自诞生之日起，政治素质始终是人才的首要考量因素，从新民主主义革命时期强调人才要“有政治远见”，到社会主义革命和建设时期强调人才要“懂政治、懂业务、又红又专”；从改革开放和社会主义现代化建设新时期强调人才“四化”首先要“革命化”，到新时代以来强调要确保人才“政治上绝对过硬”。历史与实践证明，人才队伍越是专业化，越要革命化；武器装备越是现代化，越要掌握在革命化人才队伍手中。专业化就是强化军事人才职业素养，提升核心军事能力。新形势下我军人才工作仍面临一系列新矛盾新挑战，突出表现在新兴领域人才不足、人力资源管理还不够精细、政策制度综合效能仍有待提升。只有坚持战斗力标准，紧盯实战准备人才，强化作战需求牵引，做到打仗需要什么样的人就培养使用什么样的人，让人才供给侧精准对接战场需求侧，人才专业能力同先进战斗力建设要求相匹配，才能带领部队真打实备、敢战善战，回答好“胜战之问”“价值之问”“本领拷问”。政治上不合格，一切都不合格；政治上不可靠，本事越大危害越大。各级要坚持不懈用习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想凝心铸魂，深入学习贯彻习近平强军思想，把提高政治素质与培养综合素质结合起来、灌输先进思想与学习文化知识结合起来、教育引导与实践锻炼结合起来，打牢官兵听党话、跟党走的思想根基。同时，也须把政治标准贯穿人才选拔、培养、使用全过程，坚持从政治上培养、考察、使用人才，加强忠诚度鉴别和政治考察工作，确保党真正从思想上政治上组织上牢牢掌握部队。军人为战而生，人才为战而育。现代战争表面是信息、火力的对抗，实则是专业化人才的比拼。各级应紧盯科技之变、战争之变、对手之变，深入研究现代战争制胜机理，加快完善三位一体新型军事人才培养体系，重点培养关乎体系作战能力生成、转型建设发展、战备水平提升的关键人才，优先培养科技创新最急需、军事训练最缺乏、装备管理最急用的紧缺人才，超常培养联合作战指挥人才、新型作战力量人才、高层次科技创新人才、高水平战略管理人才，确保军事人员现代化取得重大进展，关键领域人才发展取得重大突破。党的二十大报告指出，“创新军事人力资源管理”。加强革命化专业化人才队伍建设，同样需要加强军事人力资源集中统一管理，进一步盘活军事人力资源，促进人才活力释放和效能发挥，转化为实实在在的战斗力。特别是要持续深化军事人力资源政策制度改革，系统规划各类人员职业发展路径，加强政策制度配套建设，形成具有我军特色的人才培养和使用模式，让各类人才的创造活力竞相迸发、聪明才智充分涌流，确保人才得到最佳配置、发挥最大效能。