Understanding the tenets of China’s national strategy is essential to understanding the future course of China’s security and military strategy. This in turn offers insights on the current and future course of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) reform and modernization in terms of its strength, technological advances, organization, and operational concepts. CHINA’S NATIONAL STRATEGY Key Takeaways > China’s strategy seeks to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” by 2049. China’s strategy can be characterized as a determined pursuit of political and social modernity that includes far-ranging efforts to expand China’s national power, perfect its governance systems, and revise the international order. > The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) frames this strategy as an effort to realize long-held nationalist aspirations to “return” China to a position of strength, prosperity, and leadership on the world stage. > The CCP asserts its absolute leadership and governance systems are indispensable to China’s national renewal into a “great modern socialist country.” > In 2019, China intensified its efforts to advance its overall development including steadying economic growth, strengthening its armed forces, and taking a more active role in global affairs. > The CCP’s leadership has long viewed China as embroiled in a major international strategic competition with other states, including, and in particular, the United States. In 2019, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) marked the 70th anniversary of its founding. On October 1, 2019, President Xi Jinping presided over the National Day ceremony in Beijing, standing atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooking Tiananmen Square in front of a crowd that included the collected leaders of the CCP and foreign dignitaries while a massive assembly of forces and modern equipment from the PLA prepared to parade. In a brief speech, President Xi noted that it was 70 years to the day since Mao Zedong had stood in that very spot and proclaimed the founding of the PRC, ending what Xi described as the humiliations and misery that China had suffered in the previous century. President Xi then remarked, "The Chinese people managed to stand up on their feet and embark on a great journey of national rejuvenation...Today a socialist China is standing in the east of the world and there is no force that can shake the foundation of this great nation.”