The Jamestown Foundation brief (January 18, 2019) reported on a recent 'key' change in the PLA  Academy of Military Science (AMS) as part of Xi Jinping urging (Xinhua, July 19 2017) AMS, and other PLA Institutes, to adapt to the “new requirements of military scientific work” and to build a “world-class military scientific research institution”. The bureaucratic grade of AMS has technically been reduced a level (from Theater Command leader grade to Theater Command deputy leader grade, a change that also affected NDU) though AMS continues to report to the CMC. Following Xi Jinping's remarks, the AMS quickly reconfigured its internal organization. The most significant change was the merging into AMS of six research institutes previously subordinate to the PLA’s former general departments. These six institutes included the Military Medicine Institute (军事医学研究院), System Engineering Institute (系统工程研究院), National Defense S&T Innovation Institute (国防科技创新研究院), the Military Legal Systems Institute (军事法制研究院), the Chemical Defense Institute (防化研究院), and the National Defense Engineering Institute (国防工程研究院). In addition, the new AMS structure also included a Graduate Student Department (研究生院) and two research centers: the Evaluation and Demonstration Center (评估论证中心) and the Military Science Information Center (军事科学信息中心). Symbolizing this new focus, the CMC appointed Lieutenant General Yang Xuejun (杨学军), an engineering Ph.D. and former President of the NUDT, as AMS President in July 2017. Existing departments with more of a theoretical focus were retained, but consolidated in new institutes: the War Institute (战争研究院) and the Military Political Work Institute (军队政治工作研究院). The PLA Daily claimed that within months of the reorganisation, AMS had more than 3,300 “scientific research tasks” underway. It said AMS had recruited 20 “academicians” and submitted “more than 100 high-end research reports” to higher authorities. AMS researchers of a “coal-based diesel” fuel source were credited with improving PLA “ground equipment” while also increasing China’s energy security.The War Institute was praised for creating a new Joint Operations Lab Center (联合作战实验中心) which within a few months had developed new models of simulating joint campaigns in computer-assisted wargames.

(Comment: The AMS was established in 1958, to originally focus on developing military “science” based on Marxist theory. It continues to be China's premier military research institute and publishes academic publications such as the Science of Military Strategy (another version of which has also been published by NDU) and the journal China Military Science, as well as drafting China’s defense white papers.)