Defense/Military - 89. page

The People’s Libration Army has added a section on “emergency response” to its newly updated “Military Training Guidelines.” The Guidelines were modified to meet the increased demand in the informational age, said Xinhua. The handbook will be distributed to the PLA in the first part of July with intensive study sessions scheduled for the second part of July. The guidelines will become effective January 2009.

Source: Xinhua, April 16, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-04/16/content_7989234.htm

There is a lot more to the U.S. mistaken delivery to Taiwan of electricxla fuses for an intercontinental ballistic missile, Xinhua commented on April 2, 2008. In response to the U.S. Pentagon’s explanations of the error, Xinhua commentary questioned: One, was the shipment old equipment or new nuclear weapon? Two, was the delivery the defensive arms export or nuclear proliferation? Three, was it the result of mismanagement or intentional act? Four, is Taiwan trying to re-activate its nuclear weaponry program?

Source: Xinhua, April 2, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2008-04/02/content_7903038.htm

At a joint meeting of several Ministries and Agencies overseeing science and education, a senior official claimed that a modernized national defense scientific research system has emerged. Sun Yanlai, Deputy Chief of Bureau of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, depicted the national defense science and technology industry as a network composing of nearly 300 core military institutions, 90 plus key laboratories, and 7 research universities. He added that the number of defense technologies patents grows at an annual rate of over 46 percent over the past three years. The newly developed technologies include 1 million kilowatt-class nuclear power plant, large geostationary satellite platform, new regional jets, new generation of large-scale carrier rockets, super tanker, design and construction of liquefied natural gas ship.

Source: Xinhua, March 28, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/28/content_7872502.htm

As the Ministry of Information Industry is being dissolved in a new wave of government reorganization, China’s national defense technology industry is receiving more attention and will go through transformation from the closed military system to a dual function of “military and civilian application.” Yu Liegui, deputy director of Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, says that the development of military and civilian combined enterprise is the key to strengthening the capability of the national defense technology industry. Yu says that China will utilize civil nuclear power, spacecrafts, airplanes, and high-tech ships to develop key technology such as third generation nuclear-electricity technology, newer generations of space shuttles, giant civil satellites, new regional jets, and large liquid gas boats.

Source: Xinhua, March 23, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/23/content_7841193_1.htm

On March 14, 2008 the first military hotline between China and Russia was put to use, said the International Herald Leader, published under Xinhua.  It is meant to send a signal to the United States that there is much more trust between China and Russia.  A military hotline with the U.S. is expected soon.  However Chinese military experts have said that the two hotlines serve different purposes. The China-Russia military hotline is to improve communications and coordination on major international and regional issues, while the China-U.S. military hotline is to establish a dialogue to resolve potential crises between the two.

Source: Xinhua, March 18, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/18/content_7811142.htm

Xinhua reports that China’s mega plane project has finished its preparation and will soon enter its working phase. Zhang Qingwei, director of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense, revealed the news to China News Agency on March 8, 2008. Zhang emphasized that there are two main principles in the administration of the project. First, is to combine military purpose with civilian usage and have a military perspective within the civilian designs. Second, is to replace traditional industry methods with information technology.

Source: Xinhua，March 10, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/10/content_7754449.htm

Ye Peijian, an acadamic at CAS (Chinese Academy of Science) told the Chinese press that the second phase of China’s moon probing mission had begun. After launching its first lunar probe, named “Chang’e 1,” last year to “orbit” the moon, the second phase planned is a soft landing on the moon’s surface along with an “inspection using probing robots and probing devices," abbreviated as “landing”. According to Ye, the “landing” phase is scheduled to be completed by 2013. Experiments with the use of moonbuggies have also been conducted. The third phase will be a mission to carry out a soft landing on the moon’s surface and then return  the moonbuggy with collected lunar samples, abbreviated as “return”. Ye also anticipates that China will be capable of realizing a manned moon flight between 2020 and 2025.

Source: Xinhua, March 6, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/06/content_7727645.htm

Double Digit Increase of Military Expenditure Has Continued for 20 years. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily published an article on March 5, 2008 on China’s newly released defense budget. It states that China’s military expenditure has been on the rise with a double digital increase for 20 years in a row. After the 1989 Tiananmen massacre when military forces were used to suppress the Beijing democracy movement, defense expenditure started to take off and hit 355.39 billion yuan last year, about 14 times what it was in 1989.

Apple Daily comments that the 2008 defense budget of 417.7 billion yuan is no surprise in light of last week’s lengthy article in the PLA Daily calling for a significant increase in the defense budget.

Source: Apply Daily, March 5, 2008 reprinted by New Century News. http://www.newcenturynews.com/Article/china/200803/20080305145831.html