Defense/Military - 47. page

In a recent talk, Liu Cigui, the Administrator of China’s State Oceanic Administration, discussed the severe situation of safeguarding maritime rights and interests in China’s surrounding waters: marine resources have been plundered; waters have been divided up; reefs have been occupied; the security of strategic passages has been threatened; and conflict has broken out in multiple locations.

Liu said that the ocean is an important platform for international political, economic, military, and diplomatic cooperation and competition. The ocean is in an even more important position for the national strategy of coastal countries. "The State Oceanic Administration, confronted by various maritime conflicts such as Japan’s so-called ‘nationalization’ of the Diaoyu Islands and the Philippines Ayungin Reef incident, has taken a series of counter-measures and achieved initial results."

Liu added that, in accordance with the "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," China has extensive strategic interests and legitimate rights in the open seas, the ocean, the international seabed, and the North and South Poles.

Source: China News, April 11, 2014
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2014/04-11/6055889.shtml

In March 2014, the Guangzhou Public Opinion Research Center conducted telephone interviews on a sample 2,000 urban residents, collecting opinions on China’s national security and the growth in military spending.

81 percent of respondents believed the long run existence of the terrorism threat; 14 percent disagreed, and 5 percent found it "hard to say." On China’s defense and military spending, 44 percent believed that China’s military spending is "not much." 16 percent thought it was "too much," and 40 percent believed it was "just enough." 92 percent of the interviewees agreed that China’s "national defense capabilities must be commensurate with its economic development," and only 3 percent hold the opposite view. The poll also showed that 73 percent of the respondents supported the recent decision of the Chinese government to place a fiscal budget on military spending, with only 14 percent not supportive and 13 percent "hard to say."

According to the Guangzhou Public Opinion Research Center, the poll covered 23 provincial capital cities and four municipalities directly under the central government. It sampled over 2,000 urban residents of different genders, ages, occupations, and education levels.

Source: China Youth Daily, March 31, 2014
http://zqb.cyol.com/html/2014-03/31/nw.D110000zgqnb_20140331_5-04.htm

From March 24 to 28, the People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department (GPD) held a meeting in Beijing on protecting secrets and also a training session. The meeting stressed that the current battle between espionage and counter-espionage is complicated and grim. The GPD should have a strong sense of urgency and responsibility, and should not slack off.

The training focused on conveying instructions from the upper-level authorities; analyzing the current situation of the work of protecting secrets; inviting officials and experts from the government, the PLA Committee for Protecting Secrets, and National Defense University; and demonstrating anti-theft technologies.

Source: People’s Liberation Army Daily, March 31, 2014
http://www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2014-03/31/content_71655.htm

People’s Liberation Army Daily recently published a series of commentaries about the 1894 Sino-Japanese War that took place 120 years ago, giving an unusually objective evaluation of the Japanese military reform at the end of 19th century. That interaction prompted the continuous bloody conflicts between the two neighboring countries. The commentaries called for the People’s Liberation Army commanders to study the humiliating defeat of the Qing Empire at the hands of the Japanese. Analysts believe that the move is to warn of the effect of corruption within the military.

The commentaries said that the discipline and dedication of the Japanese army enabled them to defeat the Qing Dynasty’s Pei-yang Fleet.

One article stated: "(The) Chinese navy’s equipment, including the warships’ tonnage and the fire power, were indeed no less than those of the Japanese navy. … Quite a number of officers and even commanding officers of the fleet fostered ridiculous arrogance. Foreign military professionals who were paid and invited at a high price to instruct the navy were often subjected to ridicule and mockery. That was in stark contrast to the spirit of tireless learning of the Japanese Navy."

Analysts say these articles aimed to reveal the following facts: a lot of challenges that the Qing Dynasty’s army faced are the same as those the PLA battles today: nepotism, factional strife, and corruption.

A military expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law said, "If such phenomena continue, the PLA is bound to be defeated if a military conflict between China and Japan were to occur."

Tensions between China and Japan have deteriorated to the worst level since the end of the Cold War. Both sides repeatedly send planes and ships near the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

One article on PLA Daily stated, "In a sense, the 1894 War has not ended."

One retired officer in Beijing said, "What our army is facing is clearly what the Qing government failed to deal with. This is exactly the reason why Chairman Xi Jinping urged the PLA senior officers to get rid of their stereotyped thinking."

The Pei-yang Fleet was a result of the Qing Dynasty "Self-Strengthening Movement." On the eve of the Sino-Japanese naval battle in 1894, the Pei-yang Fleet had about the same strength as the Japanese Navy in military hardware, but it was still defeated.

Source: Xinhua, March 24, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2014-03/24/c_119903160.htm

On March 6, 2014, a military reporter from China Broadcasting Network interviewed Chinese congressional delegate member Major General Chen Zhou. In the interview, Chen talked about the increase in China’s military budget. 

On March12, 2014, Huanqiu republished an article originally from http://www.nnnews.net on the close military cooperation between China and Ukraine since the 1990s. However, the original article can no longer be found. For over the past 10 years, China has been at the top of the list for Ukrainian arms exports. In the 1990s, Ukraine sold China three large-scale ships. Among them was the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag. The Varyag has been rebuilt into today’s Liaoning aircraft carrier, China’s first aircraft carrier. Since 2006, Ukraine has also been training Chinese engineers, pilots, and navy technical experts in Ukraine. In 2009, Ukraine media admitted that Ukraine sold China four “European Bison” hovercraft.

A large number of first-class engineers in Ukraine lived in poverty after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Through personal friendship and shared ideology and thanks to the old Sino-Soviet friendship in the Bolshevik, Mao Zedong, and Stalin era, China invited many top experts in key military technology fields from Ukraine to come to China. In 10 years, China has recruited thousands of experts from Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States to engage in over 2000 technological projects. In 2006 alone, groups of Ukraine scientists visited China about 150 times to participate in scientific research and give lectures and there were over 2000 individual visits. Those experts were very eager to help and answer whatever questions the Chinese scholars asked because they cherished the old Sino-Soviet friendship. The current changing situation in Ukraine may affect China-Ukraine trade, especially military, cooperation. However, according to Ukraine local officials, those signed agreements have not been affected.

Source: Huanqiu,  March 12, 2014
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2014-03/4897708.html    

Yang Yuanxi, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview that China has successfully launched four Beidou experimental satellites and 16 Beidou navigation satellites, with the second stage of the Beidou Navigation Project – Beidou satellites regional networking – successfully accomplished. The level of the accuracy of the Beidou system in the Asia-Pacific region is no worse than the Global Positioning System (GPS), said Yang. He suggested that China accelerate the formulation of relevant industrial policies to improve the navigation industry and guide its orderly development.

Yang said, from the completion of the experimental system of Beidou in 2000, to official provision of continuous positioning, navigation, timing, and other services in the Asia Pacific region by the end of 2012, it took only a dozen years for China to join the club of only four major satellite positioning and navigation systems in the world. It is planned that around 2020, China will complete the Beidou global satellite navigation system of geostationary orbit satellites and 30 non-geostationary satellites, offering complete coverage with high-precision, highly reliable positioning navigation services.

Source: Xinhua, March 4, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/info/2014-03/04/d_133158767.htm