"China's Military Modernization in the First Year of the 14th Five-Year Plan: Strategic Leap from Aircraft Carrier Expeditions to Intelligent Combat Systems"

2026, as the starting year of China's "14th Five-Year Plan," is driving the People's Liberation Army's comprehensive transformation from "catching up and making up for deficiencies" to "innovation-driven" at a remarkable pace. From the steady growth of the annual defense budget to the accelerated construction of the fourth nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and the large-scale application of unmanned and intelligent equipment in joint training, a series of significant signals indicate that China's military modernization process has entered a new stage characterized by systematization and intelligence.

In March 2026, China announced an annual defense budget of 1.91 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.0%. Although this growth rate is slightly lower than the 7.2% increase in 2025, it still significantly exceeds the economic growth target of 4.5% to 5% for the same year. This means that the proportion of defense investment in the national economy continues to rise, reflecting Beijing's prioritization of military construction within the national development strategy amid the current complex geopolitical security environment. This budget will focus on key areas such as upgrading naval equipment, mass equipping of new-generation aviation weapon platforms, modernizing strategic deterrent forces, and systematic development of unmanned and intelligent combat capabilities, providing a solid financial foundation for the transformation during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.

Naval construction is undoubtedly the most prominent aspect of China's current military modernization. According to the "China Military Power Report" released by the U.S. Department of Defense at the end of 2025, the Chinese Navy plans to expand its aircraft carrier fleet to nine by 2035, which means that an average of one aircraft carrier will need to be commissioned every 20 months in the coming years—this is the largest aircraft carrier expansion plan in the Indo-Pacific region since World War II. Currently, China has three active aircraft carriers: the Liaoning, the Shandong, and the Fujian, which is set to officially join the fleet in November 2025. The Fujian, as China's first flat-deck aircraft carrier equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system, has a full-load displacement of about 80,000 tons and is equipped with a combat system known as the "carrier's five-piece set," including the J-35 stealth fighter, the J-15T catapult-capable multirole fighter, the J-15DT electronic warfare aircraft, the KJ-600 fixed-wing early warning aircraft, and anti-submarine helicopters. It is expected to achieve full combat capability by the end of 2026.

Even more noteworthy is the construction of the Type 004 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at the Dalian Shipyard. According to authoritative sources such as Jane's Defence Weekly, the Type 004 will adopt a dual nuclear reactor power system, with a full-load displacement expected to reach 110,000 to 120,000 tons, equipped with electromagnetic catapults, and capable of carrying over 100 various types of carrier-based aircraft. This scale not only surpasses the U.S. Navy's Ford-class carriers but also marks China as the third country in the world, after the United States and France, capable of building nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Following the mass commissioning of the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, the first ship of the Type 076 "drone carrier," the Sichuan, also began its first sea trial in November 2025 and entered the South China Sea for critical testing in April 2026—this new type of vessel is specifically designed for large-scale unmanned aerial combat, representing a cutting-edge exploration of naval combat concepts.

The modernization of the Air Force and Rocket Force has also entered a fast track. On the first day of training in 2026, the PLA deployed the J-20 stealth fighter, the Type 055 destroyer, and the DF-17 hypersonic missile, among the most advanced equipment currently in service, to conduct synchronized realistic drills across land, sea, air, and space multi-dimensional battlefields. Among them, the DF-17 hypersonic missile, equipped with the DF-ZF glide warhead, has a range of approximately 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers and a flight speed exceeding Mach 5. With its highly maneuverable gliding trajectory within the atmosphere, it can effectively penetrate existing missile defense systems. Its appearance in annual routine training rather than a parade display indicates that this system has fully integrated into the Rocket Force's daily combat readiness framework. Meanwhile, the 79th Group Army extensively utilized reconnaissance drones, bomb-dropping drones, smoke drones, and first-person view cruise missiles during the exercises, achieving a qualitative leap in the unmanned and intelligent combat capabilities of the Army's combined battalions.

The statements regarding defense and military modernization in the "14th Five-Year Plan" proposal are also worthy of in-depth attention. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has clearly proposed three strategic directions: "strengthening strategic deterrent forces," "promoting the large-scale, practical, and systematic development of new domain and new quality combat forces," and "accelerating the construction of unmanned intelligent combat forces and countermeasures." This marks a shift in China's military construction philosophy from a past focus on quantity centered around platforms to a system-oriented approach guided by the demands of intelligent warfare. Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, emphasized the need to "focus on the strategic high ground of international military competition and seize the initiative," accelerating the development of "new quality combat power" represented by artificial intelligence, unmanned systems, cyber capabilities, and space capabilities as a strategic priority.

From a regional security perspective, the expansion of China's military power is reshaping the security landscape in the Asia-Pacific. On May 9, 2026, Colonel Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, confirmed at a regular press conference that the China-Thailand "Strike-2026" joint army training will be held in Thailand in mid to late May, marking the eighth time the two armies have conducted this series of joint exercises; the first "Qilin" class conventional submarine built by China for Pakistan has been delivered to the Pakistani Navy in Sanya; and the PLA has recently organized naval and air forces to conduct joint combat readiness patrols around Taiwan, with main battle ship formations entering the southwestern waters of the Penghu Islands. Jiang Bin clearly stated, "Taiwan is a part of China, and there is fundamentally no so-called 'median line' in the Taiwan Strait," with the wording of this statement being stronger than in the past.

From a strategic perspective, 2026 is a year of significant turning point in China's defense modernization process. Driven by the policies of the "14th Five-Year Plan," supported by continuously increasing financial investment, and propelled by years of technological accumulation, the PLA's equipment system is transitioning from "quantitative accumulation" to "qualitative leap," and combat concepts are shifting from "mechanized and informationalized composite development" to "intelligent dominance." The construction of the Type 004 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the formation of the Fujian's combat system, the operational deployment of the DF-17, and the large-scale equipping of unmanned combat forces together constitute multiple facets of this historic turning point. For the security landscape of the Indo-Pacific region, this new round of accelerated modernization of China's military not only signifies a continuous change in the balance of power but also indicates that the forms and rules of future conflicts are being profoundly reshaped.