Defense/Military - 83. page

Study Times reported that because of the new military revolution and the rapid rise of the helicopter, which is called the tank’s ‘natural enemy,’ the former “King of Land Warfare” (the tank) is facing severe challenges. Tanks need to be re-adjusted. First, lighten tanks to increase their flexibility. Second, be invisible to minimize the probability of opponents’ detection. Third, extend the range to realize the over-the-horizon precision strike. Fourth, integrate to enhance the tank’s comprehensive combat capability.

Source: Study Times, July 6, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=1&id=2769&nid=10046&bid=7&page=1

CCTV recently broadcast a program in which military theorist and commentator Zhang Zhaozhong discussed the US nuclear proliferation prevention strategy. Zhang is a professor at the National Defense University’s Military Logistics and Technical Equipment Department.

Zhang said the current US strategy is too passive and is just chasing incidents one after another. If the US stops its hegemonic practices on smaller countries that have developed a few nuclear warheads to safeguard themselves, they will feel much safer and will halt their nuclear plans. He suggested that a few nuclear warheads should not be considered a “threat” compared to the tens of thousands owned by the US. The US should respect smaller countries and base relationships on equality, so that these countries will have a better political attitude and won’t be forced into developing nuclear plans.

Source: Boxun, July 10, 2009.
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/army/2009/07/200907102024.shtml

The Central Military Committee recently published “The Revolution Plan to Deepen the Sergeant System” for the military and armed police. Out of the seven areas of reform, two are to increase the intellectual level of the soldiers. The first one is that, while keeping the total number of military staff unchanged, the number of sergeants will be increased to 900,000 and the increase will be allocated primarily for those with high-tech specialties. The fourth one is to increase the number of direct recruits from college graduates and recruit them as sergeants.

Source: Xinhua, July 13, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-07/13/content_11699069.htm

Qiushi Journal published an article by Fang Fenghui, the Commander of the Beijing Military Area Command, on studying President Hu Jintao’s instruction on using the military to maintain social stability. Some of Hu’s instructions are quoted as: “Development is the hard truth, the number one mission; stability is the hard mission, the number one responsibility. Development is achievement, maintaining stability is also achievement.” “(We) must always take it as a critical mission for the military to maintain society’s stability.” The Military should “consciously follow the big picture, to actively contribute to the steady and fast economic development and the harmonious and stable society (of the nation).”

Fang stated that in the past, the PLA has been a critical force during political turmoil and offered strong safety protection in complex situations, and thus has become the most reliable force of the Party when dealing with a crisis.

Source: Qiushi Journal, the 13th issue of 2009, published on July 1, 2009
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090701/GB/qs%5E506%5E0%5E19.htm

People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Daily reported that a joint security exercise of the PLA and the Singapore military took place between Jun 19 and June 24 somewhere in the Guangzhou Military Region. This was the first joint exercise with Singapore, and this was the first security exercise with a foreign military.

The exercise reflected the developing military relationship between China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In recent years, Chinese military has extended international military cooperation on a strategic level – which is a national defense policy that has been listed in the Defense Whitepaper since 1994.

Source: PLA Daily, June 30, 2009.
http://www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/xwpdxw/2009-06/30/content_1818160.htm

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) announced on June 24 that the member countries agreed on the Kazakhstan’s proposal for the next military exercise. The exercise assumes a regional military conflict which will be tackled by a joint effort of the member country’s armies. The total manpower planned will be under 10,000 and the exercise is scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan in September 2010.

Source: China News, June 24, 2009.
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/06-24/1747952.shtml

On June 18, General Zhang Li delivered a talk at a meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, saying China only controls 4 of the 500 islands in the South China Sea, while Vietnam has 29. The Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei each has more than 3. China has no oil well there, but other countries have more than 1000 – with annual oil output of up to 100 million tons. This trend of development is speeding up. Vietnam and other countries are working closely with the US, Britain and Russia on further development. The Chinese Navy has only 8 vessels covering the area and current air force planes cannot reach the southern part of the South China Sea.

Source: Epoch Times, June 21, 2009.
http://epochtimes.com/gb/9/6/21/n2564777.htm

Nanfang Weekends published several articles arguing that China should change its strategy of using nuclear weapons. It reported that China is surrounded by “Nuclear Superpowers” and “Nuclear Small Powers.” These countries have encircled China with a total of 22,500 nuclear war heads. China’s military strategic experts have a consensus on war tactics once a nuclear war starts, but there have been many debates over China’s overall nuclear weapons strategy. China’s current position, as stated in the 2008 China Defense White Book, is “limited retaliation.” But as other nuclear superpowers keep adjusting their nuclear war strategy, for example, both the U.S. and Russia’s strategies are “attack first” now, China should reassess its strategy.

Source: Nanfang Weekends, June 17, 2009
http://www.infzm.com/content/30216
http://www.infzm.com/content/30218