From Guerrilla Bands to AI Warfare: The PLA’s 99-Year Transformation and Its 2027 Centenary Deadline

On August 1, 2026, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) marked its 99th anniversary just one year shy of the 2027 centenary deadline for its first major modernization milestone . The anniversary retrospective, covered extensively by Chinese state media, framed a 99-year arc from revolutionary guerrilla bands to a world-class, AI-enabled military — with Xi Zhongxun’s 1932 command of a 200-strong Red Army detachment cited as an early founding chapter .

More than a ceremonial review, the anniversary served as a progress report. With the 2027 centenary goal looming, President Xi Jinping used the occasion to direct the PLA to accelerate AI applications and build an “intelligent military system” with expanded unmanned technologies — the next strategic leap from informationization to intelligentized warfare .

Revolutionary Origin and Guerrilla Warfare (1927–1949)

The PLA traces its founding to the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927, when Communist forces launched an armed insurrection against the Kuomintang . From that small revolutionary force, the PLA (then the Red Army and Eighth Route Army) developed a doctrine of asymmetric, people-centric warfare that saw it through the Chinese Civil War and the war against Japan (1937–1945) .

Xi Zhongxun’s 1932 command. In April 1932, Xi Zhongxun — then 18 years old — led the newly formed Fifth Detachment of the Red Army’s Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrilla Force in the mountains of Yongshou county, Shaanxi province. Reorganized from a mutinous battalion of a local warlord’s Northwest Army, the 200-strong unit tried to link up with another Red Army force. The SCMP retrospective calls this episode emblematic of the PLA’s grassroots, guerrilla origins . Wikipedia records the broader context: in March 1932, Xi Zhongxun and others orchestrated the Liangdang Uprising, with Xi serving as Party Committee Secretary for the Fifth Detachment .

Conventional Force and Nuclear Deterrence (1950s–1980s)

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the PLA transitioned into a conventional standing army with organized branches (army, navy, air force). The 1960s–1970s saw the development of nuclear weapons and a strategic missile force (now the PLA Rocket Force), shifting the PLA’s posture from purely defensive ground operations to strategic deterrence .

Reform, Downsizing, and Professionalization (1980s–2000s)

Under Deng Xiaoping, the PLA underwent massive troop reductions and began prioritizing quality over quantity. The 1990s and 2000s focused on “informization” (information-based warfare), introducing modern C4ISR systems, precision munitions, and joint operations doctrine . By the time of the 99th anniversary, the force had equipped itself with aircraft carriers, strategic missiles, and stealth fighter jets — a far cry from the ragtag rifles of 1927 .

Xi Jinping’s Three-Step Modernization Roadmap (2017–Present)

At the 19th Party Congress in 2017, Xi Jinping formalized a phased modernization strategy :

• Step 1 (by 2027) — The centenary goal: Achieve mechanization and make major progress toward a networked/informationized force, timed to the PLA’s 100th anniversary on August 1, 2027 . U.S. Department of Defense reports and Congressional Research Service analyses both confirm that Xi set the 2027 benchmark as the “realization of the centenary goal of the founding of the army” .

• Step 2 (by 2035): “Basically complete” military modernization, reaching parity with advanced Western militaries in core capabilities .

• Step 3 (by 2049): Build a “world-class” military fully capable of power projection and strategic competition, timed to the centenary of the PRC’s founding .

The ‘Intelligent Military System’ Pivot (2026)

On the eve of the 99th anniversary, Xi Jinping directed the PLA to accelerate the military application of artificial intelligence. Speaking at a Politburo group study session, he said the armed forces should build an “intelligent military system” and expand the use of unmanned technologies . The Times of India reported that Xi urged the PLA to “strengthen the military application of unmanned intelligent technologies, deepen the development and application of network information systems, and gradually build an intelligent military system” .

This pivot represents the next strategic leap — from informationization to AI-driven, intelligentized warfare. U.S. military analysts at Air University note that the PLA’s 2027 centenary goal already included accelerating the “integrated development of mechanization, informatization, and intelligence” — making the 2026 AI directive a natural acceleration of an existing roadmap .

Trajectory Toward 2027

The 2026 retrospective emphasizes that the PLA is in its “critical year” before the centenary deadline . Official statements highlight rapid equipment upgrades, joint combat readiness reforms, and the push for AI integration as the defining shifts of the current era . The PLA’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) is expected to feature early demonstrations of advanced capabilities, particularly in quantum sensing, artificial intelligence, and counter-hypersonic technologies — even if not yet fully mature .

The anniversary coverage consistently links the force’s humble guerrilla past directly to its hi-tech future, with state media describing a journey from “a humble beginning” to “a modern fighting force equipped with aircraft carriers, strategic missiles, stealth fighter jets and other advanced weaponry” . With the 2027 deadline now one year away, the PLA’s 99th anniversary served as both a celebration and a countdown, as China’s military pushes to meet its most ambitious modernization targets yet.