[1] The current president of the university is People's Liberation Army (PLA) lieutenant general Xiao Tianliang.

[2] The National Defense University originated from the Red Army teaching team founded by Mao Zedong in Jinggang Mountains in 1927.

[3][4] In 2017, a textbook published by the PLA National Defense University called the Science of Military Strategy debuted the potential for biological warfare to include "specific ethnic genetic attacks.

[6] The university hosted visitors from Singapore[7] and Australia[8] as well as partnered with foreign firms such as Synopsys for technology transfer arrangements.

[11] According to this approach, PLA planners assume that the country must have the capacity for retaliation and second-strike capability against a powerful opponent.