Chinese delegation visits US to attend the defense consultations; Chinese military leadership receives host of foreign military leaders; The foreign contact work of the PLA applauded;
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    • A Chinese military delegation, led by Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Ma Xiaotian, left Beijing on Thursday for the United States to attend the 11th annual round of defense consultations. The delegation is visiting the United States at the invitation of the U.S. defense ministry. The official communiqué issued by the Chinese Ministry of National Defence maintained that the two sides were scheduled to “exchange views on military ties, maritime military security and other international and regional security issues”. The mechanism of annual China-U.S. defense consultations was established in 1997.1

    Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie met with the visiting Indonesian Army Chief of Staff George Toisutta in Beijing on December 7. On this occasion, Liang said that China attached great importance to promoting relationship with Indonesia, an important regional country. Toisutta also responded that the Indonesian army was willing to enhance bilateral military cooperation in areas such as personnel exchanges and training.2 Meanwhile, Mongolian defence minister Bold Luvsanvandan visited Beijing and met with Chinese National Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on December 7. The both the leaders pledged to enhance military ties between the two countries.3 Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), held a meeting with the Chief of General Staff of Austrian army Edmund Entacher who was on an official tour to China last week. The two leaders met on December 8. On this occasion, Chen said that China-Austria military relations had developed smoothly through frequent high-level visits as well as active interaction in various fields such as training and logistics. He also appreciated Austria’s support to the One-China principle.4 Later Edmund Entacher met with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on December 9.5 However, during the week under review, Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie also hosted Ricardo David, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on December 8. On this occasion, he appreciated that China-Philippines military relations had scored sound cooperation in high-level contacts, personnel training and logistics.6

    Meanwhile, Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China Qian Lihua, has informed that the PLA has enhanced the friendship with the foreign militaries all over the world in the year 2010. It has expanded the exchanges and mutual learning with them in aspects like national defense and army building through carrying out high-level contacts, deepening military mutual trust, strengthening pragmatic cooperation and actively participating in activities of international peacekeeping, naval escort and humanitarian rescue, making new contributions to the maintenance of world and regional peace and stability. He reiterated that, in the year 2011 also, the PLA would be willing to join hands with the foreign militaries to jointly cope with various traditional and non-traditional security threats and make enduring efforts to keep peoples all over the world away from war and enjoy lasting peace. He was speaking on behalf of Chen Bingde, member of the Central Military Commission and Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), at the annual gathering of foreign military attachés corps in Beijing on 3 December 2010.7

    Reports noted that Chinese naval escort taskforces in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somali coast have escorted ships from more than 50 countries so far. It also noted that as many as 3,014 Chinese and foreign ships had been escorted by the Chinese naval escort taskforces till then. It claimed that the efforts put by the Chinese taskforces were receiving international appreciation. It quoted David Sedney, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, saying in the US Congress that the Chinese military exerted a lot of influences in the waters off the Somali coast; and the crack Chinese sailors were in command of amazing tactics and in close cooperation with the navies of other countries including the US. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former NATO Secretary General, is also reported to have expressed his appreciation for the escort action of the Chinese Navy in the waters off the Somali coast. He is quoted as saying that the Chinese Navy has made significant contributions to anti-piracy in the international community.8

    The media also noted that “Weishanhu” ocean-going comprehensive replenishment ship of the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has participated in the escort missions of the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th Chinese naval escort taskforces in succession and performed escort missions for more than 500 days in the aggregate in the Gulf of Aden. According to the Chinese media, it has created records in material replenishment to the warships on the sea, duration of performing tasks consecutively and voyage.9

    The visiting Chinese naval ship formation consisting of the “Kunlunshan” warship and the “Weishanhu” warship reached Al Manamah, capital city of Bahrain, on December 9. The ship has gone there to pay a 5-day-long good-will visit. Before arriving in Al Manamah, the formation had visited Saudi Arabia. Incidentally, this is the first time for the Chinese naval warships to visit Bahrain.10 On the other side, The “Xiangfan” guided-missile frigate of the PLA Navy sailed into a military port in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province on 8 December 2010 after successfully accomplishing the 10th joint patrol of the Chinese and Vietnamese navies and the visit to Danang of Vietnam. It departed from Sanya on Tuesday 30 November for the Beibu Gulf to participate in the joint patrol. It also paid a visit to Danang City of Vietnam from December 4 to 7.11

    The media reported that the Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had established 4 aviation military representative offices in Guiyang, Chongqing, Xichang and Lhasa in nearly one year. It is leading in the PLA to provide a complete coverage of the aviation military transportation system within a theatre. In collaboration with civilian airlines, the Chengdu MAC has also established the 1st “plateau emergency aviation transportation team” in the country, which has enhanced the emergency maneuver and rapid projection ability of the troops. All cantonments of the Chengdu MAC are connected by the expressway network. Above 80% troop units stationed in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces and Chongqing municipality have easy accesses to expressways. The military requirements of the Chengdu MAC have been taken into account in the development of local express railway. It is important to note that the military needs were taken into account in the building of the 4-hour express railway transportation circle from Chengdu to the capital cities of neighboring provinces including Xi’an, Lanzhou, Guiyang, Kunming and Wuhan, and the 8-hour express railway transportation circle from Chengdu to Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei province, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta.12

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