Between December 7, 1953 and January 26, 1954, the Central Military Commission of?the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened a conference of senior cadres from the national military system. Based on Mao Zedong's instruction, the convention suggested that the basic mission of building an army was to build a powerful, modernized and revolutionary army step by step in order to protect the socialist construction of our country and to defend against the aggression of imperialism.