Defense/Military - 77. page

In an article in Global Times, Chinese military expert Song Xiaojun discussed three major changes in the Chinese military in the last ten years. First, anti-China forces and separatist forces are rampant, e.g. the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, the U.S. and China aircraft collision in 2001, and the "China threat theory" that has swept the world. Second, ordinary Chinese people, especially young people and Internet users, are concerned about military defense. Third, the rapid modernization of China’s weapons has attracted the world’s attention, e.g. China sent a warship to escort ships near Somalia. Song Xiaojun believes that the biggest problem with China’s military development is that it lags behind economic development, and that the Chinese military must become a global force in order to ensure China’s economic interests are not undermined.

Source: Global Times, December 30, 2009.
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-12/675329.html

The General Staff Department (GSD) of the People’s Liberation Army has issued directives on seven aspects of the 2010 military training. They include deepening the research and exploration of training in the conditions of an information environment; promoting system wide joint training and innovation in the conditions of an information environment; and focusing on training the core military capabilities.

Source: Xinhua, January 6, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-01/06/content_12767287.htm

Beijing Youth published an article by Ni Jinjie, a visiting researcher at the People’s Insurance Company of China, studying when China’s real estate bubble would burst. Ni identified what might cause the bubble to burst, for example, local governments hiking up land prices, speculators pumping hot money into the real estate market, and strong demand. Ni put forward three conditions for China’s real estate market to burst:

1. When the central government initiates the financial system reform and begins to restrict local government’s land income;
2. When the government’s monetary policy moves into a retraction cycle.
3. When there is no buyer for Real Estate properties.

The first two conditions are a function of the government. Ni noted that despite the central government’s determination to control real estate prices, the current land policy and monetary supply policy are still stimulating the bubble.

Source: Beijing Youth, December 30, 2009
http://dycj.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=62017714

The GSD of the Central Military Commission issued a military training order for the PLA in 2010. The order focused on informational issues, including research for an up to date military training, including training for combat skills, training in complicated electromagnetic environments, joint exercises, and so on.

The GSD official said that the entire PLA and armed policed are to place military training as a top priority and place emphasis on military training in 2010.

Source: Xinhua, December 29, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-12/29/content_12723672.htm

The People’s Liberation Army is strengthening the ability of its political commissars to use information technology to monitor its officers and soldiers. Xinhua reports that in a recent contest of its political officers, the Jinan Military Region has added questions on collection and analysis of online information, production of multimedia courseware and simulation of wartime political works. 96 percent of the soldiers had Internet experience prior to joining the PLA. A common activity shared by those born in the 80s and 90s is to express independent opinion on the Internet. "This is an important channel for us to learn what our officers and soldiers really have on their minds,” said a political commissar from the "Tiger" Division of the Jinan Military Region.

Source: Xinhua, December 9, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/09/content_12619528.htm

Chinese President and Chairman of Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Committee, Hu Jintao, recently issued new PLA command regulations for all branches of the army. The regulations give clear stipulations for commands at all levels and all branches geared toward “new situations and new requirements of the military struggles in the new era.” In particular, the new regulations include the PLA’s responses to multi-level security threats, combat situations involving information warfare, organization, and command operations in response to emergent incidents. 

China News Net reported that the outbreaks of H1N1 influenza have significantly increased since the autumn season started, according to the Department of Defense web site. Zhang Yan-ling, the Health Minister of the PLA General Logistics Department reported that up to now, 51 outbreaks have occurred in the PLA. Recently, some army divisions have had at least one hundred or even hundreds of individuals simultaneously sick with H1N1 influenza. The prevention and control of the disease is very difficult.

Source: China News Service, December 4, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/12-04/1999546.shtml

State media, Globe Magazine, recently commented that the West has distorted assessments of China’s Air Force. While mainstream media tend to be the reviewers in the West, “the true assessment comes primarily from governments, military, and think tanks in the West.” Such an assessment is affected by various factors, mostly politics. “More often than not, the interpretation or assessment of China’s Air Force by Western countries is not based on an objective position, but rather serves their own political or strategic objectives.” The "China’s Air Force threat theory” is driven by economic interests as well as attempts to cause a deterioration of relations between China and neighboring countries and damage China’s image. [1]

The article also tried to ease concern in the West over Air Force commander Xu Qiliang’s claim that China should develop space weapons [2]. It said Xu’s statement was misinterpreted.

Source:
[1] Xinhua, December 1, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/globe/2009-12/01/content_12569894.htm
[2] Chinascope, November 5, 009
http://chinascope.org/main/content/view/2059/105/