China sees the various drills and exercises it's made over the past two years -- including its organization of a peacekeeping force for the United Nations -- as key steps in improving the ability of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to fight and win future wars against the United States.

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The PLA reported that over the past three-plus years, its day-to-day training, military drills and overall reform have been consistently focused on sharpening its combat strength.

The PLA, the army of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and not the Chinese state, consists of five services: the People's Liberation Army Ground Force; the People's Liberation Army Navy; the People's Liberation Army Air Force; the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force and the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force.

From 2013 to 2015, the PLA conducted 383 drills of various kinds, and these drills all focused on honing real combat capability.

The latest of these real world combat scenarios was sending a fleet of 40 aircraft from the PLAAF on Sept. 25 to overfly the Miyako Strait close to Japan on its way to conduct drills over the Western Pacific.

And, in 2015, the PLA Ground Force deployed for the first time a full infantry battalion for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. The PLAN has been conducting regular igh-seas training missions in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

The PLA has also been slashing spending on unnecessary items so more funding goes to weapons, battlefield construction, education and training. Administration costs above the corps level were cut by at least half compared to 2014.

In March 2014, the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC) whose chairman is President Xi Jinping issued a guidance demanding the level of military training be raised to actual combat standards to improve the PLA's capabilities.

The guidance stressed improving combat readiness should be top priority.

In 2013, Xi said raising the capability of the PLA to win wars was one of the fundamentals of building a strong army, the others being the command of the CPC and having a proper working style.

Since then, the PLAGF has carried out extensive evaluation of its combat capability while the PLAN has boosted its "fierceness and complexity of drills."

The PLAAF removed restrictions on airspace used in drills while the PLARF expanded its maneuvering range and worked on its ability to deter and attack across the entire defense area.

TagsPeople's Liberation Army, PLA, Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping, Central Military Commission