China isn’t just building more ships and missiles. It’s building an algorithmic army.
Beijing’s Two Sessions Signal a Shift Toward Intelligentized Warfare and Tighter Party Control of the PLA.
At this year’s Two Sessions — the annual meetings of China’s top legislative and advisory bodies — Beijing delivered a blunt message: security now sits at the center of national strategy. And the future of that security, Chinese planners believe, will be powered by artificial intelligence.
For the People’s Liberation Army, the next phase of modernization is what strategists call “intelligentization.” After decades focused first on mechanization and then informatization, the PLA is moving toward integrating AI, autonomous systems and advanced data networks into every layer of military operations.
The objective is not simply superior firepower. It is decision-making dominance — processing battlefield information faster than adversaries and acting with precision across physical, cyber and cognitive domains.
Chinese analysts increasingly describe future conflicts as “meta-wars,” blending cyberattacks, psychological operations, drone swarms and conventional strikes into one continuous battlespace.
Artificial intelligence sits at the core of this transformation, alongside quantum computing, hypersonic weapons and advanced surveillance.
Much of the effort is driven by Beijing’s longstanding policy of military-civil fusion, which seeks to align universities, private technology firms and state industries with defense priorities.
President Xi Jinping used the meetings to underscore that modernization must be matched by discipline. In recent years, dozens of senior officers have been removed in sweeping anti-corruption investigations. Official data show at least 36 high-ranking figures have lost delegate status in the National People’s Congress since 2022.
The campaign reflects more than graft concerns; it reinforces party loyalty within a force that answers not to the state, but to the Communist Party.
China’s 2026 defense budget — about 1.9 trillion yuan, or roughly $278 billion — represents a 7% increase, continuing a steady upward trend. While still far below the United States’ $1 trillion-plus military spending, China now accounts for nearly 44% of Asia’s defense expenditures.
Yet Beijing allocates just over 1% of GDP to defense, signaling a strategy of calibrated growth rather than runaway expansion.
The broader context is a shifting global order. Chinese officials argue that unipolar dominance is fading and technological rivalry is intensifying. Securing supply chains, industrial capacity and strategic technologies is now framed as national security.
Taiwan remains a central concern, even as Beijing reiterates its preference for peaceful reunification. Meanwhile, protecting overseas trade routes and infrastructure investments has become increasingly vital for the world’s largest trading nation.
Security and development are no longer separate tracks. In China’s emerging doctrine, they are fused. And in that fusion, algorithms may matter as much as armies.
