Taipei –

At this year’s session of China’s top legislative session that ended on Monday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered the military to develop what he called “new high-quality combat capabilities,” a sentence that analysts said emphasized the use of artificial intelligence, high technology and artificial intelligence. Pay attention to. It could also herald plans to create a fleet of unmanned ships and submarines to support military operations, they said.

Late last week, Xi Jinping called on the military to deepen reforms, promote innovation and enhance emerging strategic capabilities when he spoke of “new quality combat capabilities” at the National People’s Congress. area.

During the meeting, six military representatives spoke on topics such as cyberspace defense capabilities, artificial intelligence applications, and the development and application of unmanned combat capabilities.

Jie Zhong of the National Policy Foundation in Taipei said that judging from Xi Jinping’s speech at the conference and comments in past speeches, his “new quality combat capabilities” seem to refer to intelligent combat capabilities.

“His (Xi Jinping’s) current goal is… to achieve so-called integrated development as soon as possible,” Jie said.

For example, through the use of artificial intelligence, the military hopes to speed up the pace of combat and shorten the time required for a series of tasks, such as detecting targets, carrying out strikes and taking near-instantaneous actions, and even control many unmanned combat vehicles simultaneously, he said. For major military powers, whoever can master the new combat model first will have the upper hand.

a report on sunday People’s Liberation Army Daily said that after the meeting, lawmakers emphasized the need to make technology a “core capability” that enhances China’s strategic power.

Congressman Hao Jingwen talked about how air, sea and land drone swarm technologies have developed and been deployed in regional conflicts.

Our country must recognize its important role in modern warfare, emerging fields and new high-quality combat capabilities, grasp its development trends, plan in advance the battlefield application of advanced technologies, and actively carry out research in fields such as big data and artificial intelligence. Only the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence can win future wars.” People’s Liberation Army Daily To quote Mr. Hao.

Lim Young-woo, an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, said that while the “new quality combat capability” seeks to leverage technological capabilities, it is difficult to say how they will be used to meet Xi Jinping’s standards – or how broadly these capabilities will be used in the future.

“In fact, China itself is still figuring out how to do it and cannot clearly point out what its new high-quality combat capabilities are. If it wants to fight a technological war in the future, its training methods and required talents will definitely be different from those in the past. ” Lin told VOA.

Lin believes that since new-quality combat capabilities are based on technological development, traditional military training thinking must be eliminated and high-tech professionals recruited. However, he said that these talents may have better choices in foreign companies or private companies and may not want to join the People’s Liberation Army.

Xi Jinping also emphasized at the plenary meeting that it is necessary to coordinate preparations for maritime military conflicts, protection of maritime rights and interests, development of the maritime economy, and improvement of maritime strategic capabilities.

Analysts said Xi’s speech revealed Beijing’s ambition to become a maritime power and control sea lines of communication.

Taken together, comments about “new high-quality combat capabilities” and “preparation for maritime military conflicts” indicate that unmanned autonomous ships will become a key development project for the People’s Liberation Army, Jie said.

“Perhaps in the future, at sea, even in distant oceans, the Chinese Communist Party will use a large number of unmanned vehicles, such as unmanned ships or even unmanned submarines, to support its maritime operations and control of sea lines of communication,” he said.

Adrianna Zhang of VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this story.