Liang Guanglie extends condolences to Japan and offers help; Ma Xiaotian visits Bolivia; International military cooperation stressed; Hong Kong Garrison of the PLA conducts sea-air joint patrol; The 8th Chinese naval escort taskforce participates in the “
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    • Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie has extended deep condolences and sympathy to the earthquake and Tsunami victims and their families in Japan. He conveyed his condolences to Japan over the massive earthquake. He also expressed willingness to offer help. The earthquake measuring 8.9 magnitude on the Richter scale hit northeastern Japan on Friday 11 March and triggered a massive tsunami in the Pacific Ocean.1

    Ma Xiaotian, Chinese Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, visited Bolivia last week. During his visit he met the Bolivian President Evo Morales, who on this occasion, said that his country attached great importance to relations with China, and pragmatic exchanges and cooperation between the two nations were mutually beneficial. Ma also remarked that since the two countries established diplomatic ties 26 years ago, the bilateral relationship has developed smoothly with frequent exchanges of visits of top leaders. 2

    Gao Shouwei, member of the PLA delegation to the 4th Session of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC), reiterated that enhancing exchange with foreign militaries was an important measure to promote the international influence of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as well as one of the effective ways to speed up the transformation of generation mode of combat capabilities. Gao Shouwei argued that it was necessary for the PLA to carry out joint exercises and trainings with foreign militaries in a wider scope with more contents, establish and perfect the normalized mechanism for joint military exercise and training with relevant foreign militaries in order to promote the transition of Sino-foreign joint military exercise and training from the one staged by single service or single arm to the one involving multiple services and arms, from non-traditional security field to both traditional and non-traditional security fields, and from highlighting bilateral cooperation to attaching equal importance to both bilateral and multilateral cooperation. He also remarked that the PLA should further strengthen exchange of visit and study with foreign militaries, lower properly the rank thresholds of the military personnel to go abroad for military exchange purpose, so as to increase the proportion of responsible officers of combat units at division, brigade and regiment levels in the PLA delegations to go abroad to have military exchange with foreign armed forces.3

    According to reports, the Hong Kong Garrison of the PLA conducted this year’s first sea-air joint patrol on the morning of March 9 in order to effectively fulfill the sea and air defense task in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. It is learnt from reports that the sea-air joint patrol mainly focused on monitoring, tracking, and identifying suspicious targets in the waters and airspace of the Hong Kong SAR, as well as timely dealing with emergencies. 4

    The 8th Chinese naval escort taskforce participated in the “Peace 11” multi-national joint maritime exercise on 9 March. In the exercise, it demonstrated an anti-terrorism boarding drill together with the foreign navies from Pakistan, Italy, France, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The contents of the drill included approaching the target vessel, shouting to the suspected terrorists for inducing them to capitulate, climbing rope ladders, searching for and then controlling the targets, interrogating the “suspects”, and investigating and collecting evidence. 5

    Guo Boxiong, a Deputy from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to the National People’s Congress (NPC), member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), has reiterated CMC Chairman Hu Jintao’s insistence on accelerating transformation of combat power generation mode. He said the need of hour is to resolve the principal contradictions of two “incompatibles” in the development of the Chinese military, promoting the scientific development of national defense and army building, and effectively performing the historical mission of the PLA in the new century and the new period. 6

    Huang Jiaxiang, a Deputy to the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) has highlighted the need of a proper legal framework for PLA Navy’s overseas missions. He has recently said that there was still some vacuum in the relevant laws and regulations on the escort actions of the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and there existed some ambiguities in the understanding and application of these laws and regulations. He said that it was imperative to establish and prefect relevant laws and regulations to provide comprehensive legal support for the PLA Navy’s oceangoing escort actions. 7

    In other developments, Ma Jianguo, a Deputy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and political commissar of Military Economics Academy of the PLA has argued that national defense contracts constitute the basis of military economic activities and offer ways to effectively improve the benefits of military economy. He further said that the lack of a norm in the operation and management of national defense contracts leads to problems like ambiguity of responsibilities, rights and obligations, content segmentation, loose supervision, inadequate incentive, less than effective relief, low work efficiency among others, suppressing the essential function of the national defense contracts. He averred that with the further advancement of military logistical support outsourcing and in-depth development of the weapon and equipment system reform, it is imperative to strengthen national defense contract legislation and appropriately allocate responsibilities, rights and obligations, in order to maintain the military economic order and improve the benefits of military economy. 8

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