People's Liberation Army Exercise in 1981

In September 1981 the PLA conducted its first large-scale joint service exercise in the aftermath of the 'Culture Revolution' and the 1979 China-Vietnam border conflict. The 1981 exercise was intended to examine the actual status and readiness of the PLA following years of political chaos in the 1960s and 1970s. The then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping also used the exercise to establish his authority within the Communist Party and the military.

A total of 114,000 regular army troops and militias, 1327 armoured combat vehicles, 1,541 artillery guns, 475 planes, and 10,606 motor vehicles from the ground forces, airborne forces, and air force aviation corps took part in the largest ever exercise in the PLA's history.

The exercise lasted for four days between 14 and 18 September 1981. In the morning of 19 September, the exercising troops carried out a military parade to mark the successful ending of the exercise. The Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, senior party and government officials, and PLA leaders reviewed the troops. In his speech Deng signalled that modernisation would become the highest priority in the PLA's future development. The exercise was generally viewed as the start of the PLA's modernisation programme, which continues today.

I found this video on Google. It was probably copied from an internal documentry film originally published in the 1980s by the military movie studio. The video reveals some interesting images of the PLA's equipment and tactics used in the early 1980s.