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China to step up unmanned technologies use in army — Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the People's Liberation Army to intensify its use of unmanned and intelligent technologies as part of a broader push to build a modern, combat-ready force. The remarks, made at a Politburo group study session, underscore Beijing's focus on meeting military modernisation goals by the PLA's centenary in 2027 and beyond.

By Tertius News AI Desk 2 outlets · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Jul 31, 2026 Published Aug 14

Lead

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to step up its adoption of unmanned and intelligent technologies, framing the push as part of a wider effort to build a modern, combat-ready military. Speaking at a group study session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces, Xi called for strengthening the military application of such technologies and gradually building an "intelligent military system," as quoted by state news agency Xinhua and reported by the South China Morning Post.

Coverage comparison

The South China Morning Post and Russia's TASS news agency both reported Xi's remarks, though with slightly different emphases. The Post framed the comments as a reflection of the leadership's current thinking on the PLA's progress toward its centenary modernisation goal, noting that the president spoke ahead of the army's 99th anniversary on Saturday. TASS, drawing on China Central Television, highlighted Xi's call to intensify the use of unmanned and intelligent technologies and his repeated stress on combat readiness as the main guideline for military modernisation.

Both outlets noted Xi's broader ambition: China's military aims to become a world-class force by 2049 and to "basically achieve" the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces by 2035. The Post added that the PLA has previously called for better integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and that Xi told Thursday's meeting the army had made "significant progress" in modernising and becoming combat-ready since 2012.

TASS reported additional specifics from Xi's address, including his call for the development of networked information systems, improved integration of combat capabilities, testing under realistic conditions, and strengthening combat training. The Russian agency also quoted Xi as urging a deepening of the fight against corruption and an improved oversight system for major military projects.

Key claims

Xi Jinping called for strengthening the military application of unmanned intelligent technologies and gradually building an intelligent military system, according to both the South China Morning Post (citing Xinhua) and TASS (citing China Central Television).
Combat readiness remains the main guideline and criterion for military modernisation, a point reported by TASS.
Xi called for the development of networked information systems and improved integration of combat capabilities, as reported by TASS.
Xi emphasised the need to ensure the CPC's absolute leadership over the armed forces, according to TASS.
The PLA's 99th anniversary fell on Saturday, as noted by the South China Morning Post.
China's military aims to become a world-class force by 2049, according to the South China Morning Post.
The goal is to "basically achieve" the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces by 2035, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China must meet the targets for the centenary of the People's Liberation Army within the established timeframe and make decisive progress toward the fundamental modernisation of national defence and the armed forces, Xi said, according to TASS.

How each outlet told it

South China Morning Post as of Jul 31, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC

Framing: Xi Jinping's call for PLA modernization — analytical

Facts Included:

Xi Jinping called on the PLA to enhance its use of AI
The PLA aims to develop an intelligent military system
China's military aims to become a world-class force by 2049
The goal to 'basically achieve' the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces by 2035
The PLA's 99th anniversary

Read the source article →

TASS — English as of Jul 31, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC

Framing: China's military modernization — informative

Facts Included:

China will intensify the use of unmanned and intelligent technologies in the army
China aims to build an intelligent military system
Combat readiness remains the main guideline and criterion for military modernization
Xi Jinping called for the development of networked information systems and improved integration of combat capabilities
Xi Jinping emphasized the need to ensure the CPC's absolute leadership over the armed forces

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimChina will intensify the use of unmanned and intelligent technologies in the army and will gradually build an intelligent military system.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from TASS — English as of Jul 31, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimCombat readiness remains the main guideline and criterion for military modernization.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Jul 31, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC
ClaimXi Jinping called for the development of networked information systems and improved integration of combat capabilities.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from TASS — English as of Jul 31, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimXi Jinping emphasized the need to ensure the CPC's absolute leadership over the armed forces.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Jul 31, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC
ClaimThe PLA's 99th anniversary was on Saturday.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 31, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC
ClaimChina's military aims to become a world-class force by 2049.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 31, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC
ClaimThe goal is to 'basically achieve' the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces by 2035.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 31, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

2 outlets · 2 articles consulted: South China Morning Post, TASS — English 7 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-14