The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is an armed force that has traversed an 80-year fight course. How do you see it and how you appraise it? For most people in China, it is an army of mighty power, of civilization, of justice and of peace… But when you traveled outside China or step outside its gate, you could hear much more complex noises. Some people might take it as an opponent force and some others regard it simply as a threat. Faced with such noise, how do you make your own assessment?

　　The methods are actually very simple: one is a historical one and the other with regard to logics.

　　Viewing from an angle of history, its 80-year course has provided most eloquent, indisputable facts for the people to make the correct judgment.

　　At the time of its birth, China was in the chaotic years of war. There was no single day of peace on this vast land, but with tangled warfare among warlords, aggression from foreign powers and races among Western powers to carve up the nation. It was precisely for this army that lifted the Chinese mainland out of war flames and enabled people to begin a peaceful and secured life after 22 years of untold fierce battles and expeditions. In the ensuing years, it also experienced a series of hostilities to beat back foreign aggression and harassment. Whenever battles erupt, the army could effectively curb their extension and stamp out war flames within a shortest possible period time. There was no territory ceding, no indemnity composition, no post-war overseas troop stationing, and no endless disputes and conflicts. As the victor of one war after another, the army has brought genuine peace to this land that had been ravaged by ferocious wars.

　　From the history of this army, the people have witnessed the loftiest realm of the traditional Chinese military spirit, namely, the supreme military power is to ensure peace and prevent resort to arms.

　　Via reasoning a logical method, one can distinctly tell its future direction from the earliest starting point.

　　China today is ushering in a new rise. In contrast with the emergence of other major powers before, China is seeking a peaceful rise. China's strategic objective is to require its army to stem wars effectively and provide a peaceful external environment for national construction and development. This has determined that the future primary goal of PLA is to seek peace and safeguard peace.

　　True, this once-technologically backward army is also bent on modernizing itself with the world's state-of-the-art weaponry which gears to the future information war. These moves have caused some people's misunderstanding as well as promotion materials by those with ulterior motives.

　　As a matter of fact, peace also calls for strength, and this has left this army with a profound, ensuring memory. Half a century ago, when the war flames on the Korean Peninsula swept to the Yalu River, China's leaders also attempted to avert the war, but numerous statements or stern warnings issue by the Chinese government were taken merely as trivial, unworthy "empty bluff and bluster" by opponents. Only till the Chinese volunteers (army) beat back its intruding forces did it display its might and peace finally came. Despite the fact many people deemed that Chinese army had worked wonders militarily in that war, the war cost us too heavy a price from the national strategic point of view – China's economy rehabilitation and construction had to defer and several hundred thousand people lost their lives… When China is in a pressing demand for peace, on no account can the failure to curb war with inadequate power during those days can repeat itself again.

　　All those who truly know the PLA will the phrase, namely, "the Party commands the gun." If one knows the Communist Party of China, leader of the army and the ruling or leading party in the country, has set forth the concept for building a harmonious world, then it will be easiest thing for us to understand this army: that is, the PLA represent the force of peace!

　　By Chen Hu, executive chief editor of the World Military Affairs magazine; translated by People's Daily Online.