Modernization drive boosts PLA's capabilities

The last five years have seen major developments in China's home-grown military hardware and technical expertise, as Zhao Lei reports.

The period since the start of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), has seen China make a number of remarkable achievements through its military modernization drive, and the People's Liberation Army now owns some of the world's best weapons, according to experts and observers.

"Since 2011, China has been testing two fifth-generation stealth fighter jets, an accomplishment most of us didn't dare to think about 10 years ago," Wu Peixin, an aviation observer in Beijing, said. "With their development proceeding rapidly and smoothly, the PLA Air Force will soon have one of the world's top fighter jets."