Army needs 'information warfare' plan, declares Xi

President Xi Jinping has said China will spur military innovation and called on the army to create a new strategy for "information warfare" as the country embarks on military reform, state media said on Saturday.

Xi heads the Central Military Commission, which controls the 2.3-million-strong armed forces, the world's largest, and is stepping up efforts to modernize forces.

During a meeting with the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Xi said China "must vigorously promote military innovation" but warned it will be difficult.

"When you compare military innovation to other forms of innovation, the demands are greater and there will be a higher degree of difficulty," Xi was quoted as saying.

"Faced with the severe challenges to our national security and stability and the deep-seated contradictions and problems with reform, it is even more pressing that we greatly liberate our ideas and concepts, have the courage to change our fixed mindsets of mechanized warfare and establish the ideological concept of information warfare."

Xi said the army must "strive to establish a new military doctrine, institutions, equipment systems, strategies and tactics and management modes" for information warfare.

"We should cast off the paradigm of mechanized warfare and embrace an approach to war featuring information technology. The principle of protecting traditional security interests should also be shifted to one for the country's comprehensive security and strategic interests," according to Xi.

The tendency of separate military departments to defend their own interests should be thrown out in favor of a mindset of maintaining the interests of the entire army and the country, Xi said.

He urged the integration of military and civilian innovation so that the two can accommodate each other and develop together.

Xi also urged all Party members to be more aware of military issues, defense and military building and military preparedness, and to give more support to the country's national defense and military reforms.

"The world is in a stage of accelerated evolution and profound adjustment," Xi said, noting that progress in the military sector is with informationization at the core.