Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) Hu Jintao on Tuesday highlighted the importance of military training in peacetime, when he delivered a keynote speech at the ongoing military training conference of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

 

The army, which used to depend on mechanical equipment, should modify its military training in the information age in a step-by-step manner, said Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

 

Military training should be enhanced up to a higher level by innovating on the basis of existing achievements, Hu said, urging the army to carry out its historic mission efficiently.

 

Hu said that China's security situation has witnessed profound changes and the army is carrying out a new historic mission. The army should therefore intensify military training efforts, with a strategic awareness about the general situation.

 

The Chinese army should work hard in military training, in an effort to meet the progress and changes in the status of warfare and the method of battle. "Step up military training to strengthen the army and be rigorous in training," he stressed.

 

All service people should be made aware of the army's historic mission, ideology, fighting spirit, and socialist ethics, whilst upholding the Marxist view of war, patriotism and revolutionary heroism.

 

The meeting was presided by CMC Vice-Chairman Guo Boxiong and attended by CMC Vice-Chairmen Cao Gangchuan and Xu Caihou, and CMC Members Liang Guanglie, Li Jinai, Liao Xilong, Chen Bingde, Qiao Qingchen and Jing Zhiyuan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2006)