China and Russia pledge to strengthen their military ties; Romanian Defense Minister visits China; Chen Bingde visits Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru; Jordanian King Abdullah II meets with Xu Caihou;
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    • China and Russia has pledged to further advance their military ties. Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov visited Beijing on 9 November. During this one-day official visit, he met separately with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission Guo Boxiong and Defense Minister Liang Guanglie.1

    The Vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission Guo Boxiong met with visiting Romanian Defense Minister Gabriel Oprea on Thursday, 11 November. On this occasion, Guo remarked that China-Romania relations had developed smoothly since the two sides forged diplomatic ties 61 years ago. He appreciated Romania’s support to the one China policy as well, and expressed hope that the two sides and their militaries would further develop ties.2 Meanwhile, the Sino-Romanian army mountain troops’ joint training, codenamed the “Friendship Action 2010”, also formally started on 5 November.3

    On the invitation of the militaries of Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru, Chen Bingde, member of the Central Military Commission and Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), left Beijing on 11 November for the three countries to pay an official goodwill visit.4 In his itinerary, he first met with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on 12 November. This was the first highest ranking Chinese military delegation that has visited Ecuador since the two countries established diplomatic relations 30 years ago. Correa described Ecuador and China as neighbours whose borders the Pacific Ocean draws. In fact, according to him, Ecuador can work as a conduit point for China to strengthen its ties with South American countries. He characterized Ecuadorian and Chinese economies as highly complementary. He reiterated that the Ecuadorian government would extend its support to the one-China policy.5

    Jordanian King Abdullah II met with the visiting vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou on 10 November. On this occasion, Xu thanked the king for his country’s support to China on Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, and assured him that China supported the just cause of the Arab states. He reiterated that China backs Jordan’s role in the process of achieving fair and lasting peace in the Middle East.6 Before this, Xu had met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on 8 November. The two leaders discussed relations between the armies of the two countries during the meeting.7

    China’s Ministry of Defence has informed that the Chinese PLA and Turkey’s armed forces have carried out a week-long joint military training which started in Turkey on Monday, 8 November 2010. The training programme, attended by ground forces from both countries, included training of basic assault skills in hilly terrains and tactics.8

    Meanwhile, Sino-Thai Marine Joint Training, the “Blue Strike 2010”, has been concluded at the training base under the Headquarters of the Marine Corps of the Royal Thai Navy in Sattahip on 11 November.9 This joint exercise was commenced on 9 November 2010.10

    The Chinese PLA is training its officers for effective media management as it is adopting a more open and transparent image. Pursuant to this objective, the University of National Defence organized a seminar that was concluded on Saturday 13 November 2010. In this seminar, more than 80 senior officers studied techniques for international communication, the media environment, and media skills. Incidentally, this news-report also noted one more important fact that China has conducted military exchanges and cooperation with more than 150 countries, and since 2002, it has joined 35 bilateral or multilateral military exercises with 26 nations.11

    Reports noted that a training course on the special ordinance & equipment operation of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was recently concluded in a unit stationed in Hubei Province. It has been learnt that after the training, more than 30 kinds of special-type equipment in four major categories will officially start their military service. More than 10 new types of equipments for specific purposes debuted in this training course, which included high technological contents, displayed superb performance and demonstrated the further improvement of the PLA’s capability in coping with multiple security threats and accomplishing diversified military tasks.12

    The PLA has recently established the first ever high-tech military transportation training field by the Yalu River. The newly established training field has of late held a modernized transportation exercise embracing IT elements staged by a logistics sub-department of the Shenyang Military Area Command (MAC) of the PLA.13

    the first medial train of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) smoothly rolled out of a locomotive plant on 9 November. This train demonstrates that the PLA has the reliable capabilities for “rescue and treatment of the wounded when evacuating them” in large batch by crossing areas and covering long distance.14

    China has participated in the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) recently. Deputy Director General of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China Kang Yong, represented China and headed the Chinese Observer Delegation in this four- day meeting. This meeting took place in Laos and was attended by representatives from more than 100 countries and dozens of international organizations. It discussed four key documents, including the Vientiane Declaration, Vientiane plan of action on implementation of the convention, an agreement on reporting format under the convention and a work plan for 2011.15

    The 8th Chinese peacekeeping transportation detachment to Liberia will leave for Liberia this year on 16 December, 2010. A group army of the Beijing Military Area Command (MAC) of the PLA is dispatching this detachment. It is the second time when the group army is sending the detachment to shoulder the peacekeeping transportation task in Liberia. The main duties of the detachment will be providing transport support of personnel, materials, drinkable water and fuel to the peacekeeping troops from different countries in Liberia and transporting humanitarian supplies. It is learnt that so far China has dispatched ten batches of peacekeeping troops to Liberia. Since April 2006, this group army has sent officers and men from its engineer and transportation troops to go to Liberia for five times in succession to shoulder the peacekeeping task.16

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