Units from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) land, naval and air forces have performed a series of joint exercises and training during the third quarter of 2010.

Chinese military experts say the move revealed the PLA's transformation to improve its real combat capabilities in the type of joint operations required by modern warfare.

Military training and exercises have been part of the continuous mission by the PLA's forces, even in a natural disaster-prone season, said Senior Colonel Guo Wujun, a professor with the PLA's National Defense University, during an interview with Xinhua.

This summer, extreme weather conditions caused floods, landslides and other deadly natural disasters in China's southern, northeast and southwest regions.

As a result, large numbers of troops from the PLA's land, naval, and air force have been assembled and dispatched to disaster-hit areas for use as relief forces.

However, at the beginning of July the PLA Navy's Donghai Fleet, or East China Sea Fleet, deployed a task force consisting of dozens of warships and aircraft to the East China Sea and held live-fire training.

Later on July 9, special forces under the PLA's Lanzhou Military Area Command and their Pakistani counterparts completed joint anti-terrorism training in northwest China.

Further, on July 17 the PLA Navy participated in a joint exercise practicing emergency maritime rescue procedures with civilian maritime and transportation departments.

From July 25 to 29, more frequent exercises and training by the PLA were reported.

Then in September, PLA troops also participated in a joint anti-terrorism exercise held by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kazakhstan.

Senior Colonel Tan Kaijia told Xinhua that those joint exercises and training, either conducted by forces between the PLA and foreign militaries or between units of the PLA' s different forces, were all part of the PLA's annual training and exercise plan which had been scheduled in 2009.

Even during the crucial time when the PLA was fighting natural disasters, those exercises have not been postponed or canceled, which revealed that the PLA had given military training a strategic importance, said Prof. Guo.

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