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In the Hoover Institution's China Leadership Monitor, James Mulvenon analyzes the significance of President Hu's rhetorical phrase "new historic missions" in shaping the ideology of China's armed forces, and as a test case for Hu's relationship with the PLA.
With the attention paid to "new historic missions," it is tempting to posit that this concept is Hu Jintao's proposed "contribution" to military thought, to be placed on the revolutionary mantel alongside the existing pantheon of "Mao Zedong Military Thought, Deng Xiaoping's ideas for army building in the new stage, and Jiang Zemin's ideas on national defense construction and army building." However, these missions appear to constitute only one part of a broader revision of the PLA's latest "strategic guiding theory" under Hu Jintao's leadership. Instead, Hu's contribution begins with the overall ideological guidance on "scientific development," first introduced at the 16th Party Congress in 2002.2 Authoritative propaganda materials are very clear about the conceptual hierarchy, describing "scientific development" as an "important guiding strategy for national defense construction and army building," with the "new historic missions" described as a logical manifestation of the use of the "scientific development" method to understand the changing international military and security environment. The "new historic missions," otherwise known as the "three provides, and one role" are defined as follows: "(1) providing an important guarantee of strength for the party to consolidate its ruling position, (2) providing a strong security guarantee for safeguarding the period of important strategic opportunity for national development, (3) providing a powerful strategic support for safeguarding national interests, and (4) playing an important role in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development."