Defense/Military - 37. page

Leading news portal Sina recently carried a report from Xinhua titled, "Xi Jinping: No Excuses Allowed for Refusing to Take Demobilized Officers." President Xi Jinping underscored the importance of providing demobilized military officers with civilian jobs. This is considered a political task and is closely linked to national defense and military reform. On Tuesday, June 7, Zhao Leji, head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee’s organization department, conveyed Xi’s comments on this issue in a speech he gave at a recent meeting of the Politburo standing committee at the 2016 National Conference on Employment of Demobilized Officers. Xi also noted that a long-term solution for arranging civilian jobs for demobilized officers would be deepened reform. He called for measures to improve the management of the security mechanism for demobilized officers and to perfect the public service system as well as relevant policies, laws and regulations. 

Recently, the U.S.-based magazine The National Interest published an article reporting that the U.S. military is considering deploying artillery systems in the South China Sea. Chinese military experts, in an interview with CCTV, stated that the U.S. deployment of an artillery system in the South China Sea can improve the U.S. and the Philippines’ military strike capability in the South China Sea. The U.S. is militarizing the South China Sea. This will lead to regional instability. 

People’s Daily published an article which stated that the Pentagon Report issued on May 14 is a continuation of the old story of the “China Military Threat” and is full of the U.S.’s own imagination. The article claimed that the theory quoted in the report, that China plans to increase the number of its submarines to 69 to 78, was an exaggeration. It said that “the Pentagon Report overstated the number of weapons and their capability. It was meant to trick China’s neighboring countries so that they would raise their guard against China.” 

Source: People’s Daily, May 17, 2016
http://military.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0517/c1011-28355148.html

Guangming Daily reported that, on May 7, a conference was held in Beijing to carry out the directives to cease the PLA and the Armed Forces’ paid service work. Xi Jinping and the Central Military Commission had initially initiated the work at the end of March. The conference listed 17 paid service groups for the first round of trial units. The list included vacant land leasing agencies, military hospitals, news publishers, and hotels. The goal is to use these trial sites to gain the experience to come up with policies which can be used to close all paid service work.

According to the article, the Central Military Commission published a notice at the end of March which requires all PLA and Armed Forces to cease all paid service contract work. The notice stated that, effective immediately, no new projects will be launched, no existing projects will be renewed, and any projects that can be stopped through negotiation must end. The notice also included rules and guidelines to implement these directions. It said that the Commission plans to spend the next three years implementing the plan.

Source: Guangming Daily, May 8, 2016
http://politics.gmw.cn/2016-05/08/content_19996662.htm

Recently, People’s Daily reported on the fact that the Chinese Air Force has officially started to develop strategic bombers. The article reported that, in an interview on CCTV’s “Today’s Focus” program, military expert Li Li expressed that it is essential for China to develop a new generation of strategic bombers. 

Xinhua reported that a People’s Liberation Army senior officials military reform seminar was held for the first time from April 18 to 22, 2016, in Beijing.