Dennis J. Blasko
©2026 Dennis J. Blasko
CLSC Quick Takes offer expert analysis of select sources and provide timely insight in a succinct format rather than as formally cited academic products.
Discovery
The January 18, 2026, edition of Jiefangjun Bao (Liberation Army Daily) carried a front-page article titled “Full-Time Instructors Become a Crucial Part of the Joint Operations Talent Training System.” It described a program initiated in 2022 at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) National Defense University (NDU) in which “outstanding senior and mid-level leaders” (a formulation that includes commanders, political commissars, and senior staff officers from all services at regiment and higher grade level with rank of colonel and above), are assigned for two years to teach at the NDU as “full-time instructors.” These experienced field officers augment, and sometimes teach in conjunction with, the NDU’s cadre of permanently assigned active-duty PLA officers and non-active-duty uniformed civilian professors (mostly PhDs), who have had little or limited recent experience in operational units. “Full-time instructors” focus on “practical teaching tasks, such as specialized lectures and simulation exercises in joint operations.” In other words, this “new” batch of instructors adds the realities of life in the operational PLA to the theory taught by permanent professors with the goal to improve the NDU’s joint operations personnel training system.
Analysis
Left unsaid in this article is that the PLA instituted a very similar program in 2003–4 at NDU for the same purpose. By 2009, about 12 percent of the faculty were from operational units. Quietly, sometime in the next few years, the experiment was abandoned, reportedly, because the officers who served in these teaching positions did not get promoted. The second iteration of the concept is a tacit admission that shortcomings in joint officer education and training still exist. The balance between theoretical study and practical application in course work needs to be adjusted to better reflect recent operational and tactical lessons learned in training.
Implications
If the “full-time instructor” program is deemed successful this time, the PLA may decide to widen their assignment to other military universities and academies. Although permanent professors occasionally visit and observe operational units and exercises to familiarize themselves with life in the “real PLA,” their experiences are much different from officers who are actually responsible for leading and training units and deploying on the real-world missions the PLA undertakes. “Full-time instructors” can add a practical dimension to student learning that most other professors cannot.
Strategic Message
This article is one example of how the PLA professional military education system differs from the US military. PLA officers (and NCOs) spend much less time in the classroom throughout their careers than their American counterparts and are expected to maintain currency with technical and doctrinal developments through self-study and local training and exams. While developing personnel talent and improving leadership abilities continue as important long-term objectives of PLA modernization—despite extensive structural changes to PLA universities and academies—many problems remain unresolved.
Analysis Source: “专职教官成为联合作战人才培养体系重要一环” [Full-Time Instructors Become a Crucial Part of the Joint Operations Talent Training System], 中国军网 [China Military Online], January 18, 2026, http://www.81.cn/szb_223187/szbxq/index.html?paperName=jfjb&paperDate=2026-01-18&paperNumber=01&articleid=971161.
Keywords: PLA National Defense University, joint operations training, PLA PME, PLA modernization, military professionalization
Dennis J. Blasko
Dennis J. Blasko (lieutenant colonel, US Army, retired) is a former military intelligence officer and foreign area officer specializing in China. He is an independent analyst and author of The Chinese Army Today (Routledge, 2012).
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