China and Pakistan hold 8th Defence and Security talks; The Kazakh Defence Minister meets with his Chinese counterpart; The Inner Mongolia Military Command improves border infrastructure tremendously; New-type of transport helicopter introduced;
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    • Recently, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan visited China to attend the 8th Sino-Pakistani Defense and Security Talks. The talks were held on February 23, 2011. On this occasion, he met with Chen Bingde, the Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). During the meeting, Bingde reiterated that China attached great importance and was devoted to pushing forward relations between the two militaries. On this occasion, the two countries pledged to enhance strategic communication and cooperation between their militaries. The First China-Pakistan Defense and Security talks were held in March 2002. During his visit, he told the media persons that Pakistan and China would hold two joint military exercises in 2011. The two exercises – one army drill and one air force one – will be held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pakistan and China. In fact, Wynne himself led a joint anti-terrorism drill between Pakistan and China in Qingtongxia in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region In July 2010.1

    Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, Defense Minister of Kazakhstan who is accompanying his President Nursultan Nazarbayev on a visit to China, met with Liang Guanglie, State Councilor and Defense Minister of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on February 21. On this occasion, Liang Guanglie reiterated that Kazakhstan was China’s friendly neighbor and strategic partner. He said that in the past years, the high-level contacts between the two countries had been very close, the political mutual trust deepening, the pragmatic cooperation in various fields increasingly expanding, and the Sino-Kazakh strategic partnership developing. The Kazakh Defence Minister Dzhaksybekov also reiterated that Kazakhstan was willing to work together with China to continue to expand the cooperation fields of the two militaries.2

    The Inner Mongolia Military Command (MC) of the PLA has improved its frontier defense facilities and border management. The reports noted that the Inner Mongolia MC had built a 3,000-km-long frontier defense patrol road and a 4,000-km-long border wire netting, and renovated all the comprehensive training grounds of the frontline companies, greatly improving the duty-performance and training conditions of its troops. The Inner Mongolia MC has also laid 7,000-odd kilometers of frontier defense optic cable, realizing interconnection among remote units at the level of frontier Defense Company and above as well as some sentry posts. It has also installed 24-hour monitoring facilities at frontier ports, main passages and sensitive areas, greatly strengthening the capability of its troops in managing and controlling the border with science and technology. The MC has also improved the military-police-civilian joint defense system, established the reliable intelligence and information network and regularly carries out military-police-civilian joint operation, effectively safeguarding the peace and stability of the border areas.3

    Reports noted that in last mid-February that China’s first batch of new-type military transport helicopters had made their first flight successfully after they entered service. According to the Army Aviation Department of the General Staff Headquarters (GSH) of the PLA, the new-type helicopter is a medium-size transport helicopter with great improvements in controlling, mobility, flight distance and flight speed comparing with the existing similar transport helicopters. These new-type transport helicopters have fully adopted computerized control system with more means for navigation and the capability of environmental monitoring. It is claimed that the use of this transport helicopter will greatly enhance the capability of the PLA Army Aviation Force in performing diversified military tasks.4

    However, another report noted that the PLA Air Force had established a further education platform with the characteristics of its own after two years of efforts. The PLA Air Force established the Military Vocational University in June 2008. This is an open university for all the officers, noncommissioned officers and compulsory service people of the PLA Air Force with military post education as the main while giving consideration to credential education. The Military Vocational University of the PLA Air Force has set up 400-odd courses for officers’ training and 420-odd courses for soldiers’ training based on 33 professional systems.5

    In other developments, according to reports, in the closing year of the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), the military legislative work of China made great achievements and the military legal system with Chinese characteristics basically took shape. It was noted that the military legal system with Chinese characteristics had basically introduced various relevant laws and regulations and is basically covering all fields of national defense and army building.6

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