Hu Jintao said Thursday China will speed up the modernization of national defense and the armed forces.

"We should act to meet the new requirements of China's national development and security strategies and ensure that the armed forces fully carry out their historic mission in the new stage in the new century," Hu said in a report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Hu said China should implement the military strategy of active defense for the new period, expand and intensify military preparedness, and enhance the capability to accomplish a wide range of military tasks, the most of which is to win local war in an information age.

More in special coverage: