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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 02, 2003

'We Saw Highly Qualified Chinese Soldiers'

On August 25, 27 military observers from 15 countries including the U.S, Russia, the U.K, France, Germany, Israel, South Africa and Pakistan came to a combined tactical exercise base in Zhurihe in Inner Mongolia to watch a confrontation exercise with real troops by a unit of armored brigade from the Beijing Military Area Command. The exercise was the first of its kind to be open to foreign military observers. The performance of Chinese troops won their loud applauses.


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On August 25, 27 military observers from 15 countries including the U.S, Russia, the U.K, France, Germany, Israel, South Africa and Pakistan came to a combined tactical exercise base in Zhurihe in Inner Mongolia to watch a confrontation exercise with real troops by a unit of armored brigade from the Beijing Military Area Command. The exercise was the first of its kind to be open to foreign military observers. The performance of Chinese troops won their loud applauses.

Though coming from different countries and speaking different tongues, they are all experts in the area of military exercises. They warmly clapped their hands when they reached the modern 1 000 km2 exercise base. It is a large modern combined tactical drill base with mountains, hills and plains designed to provide a base for military exercise with troops at division and corps level.

A senior officer of the U.S. Army told reporters that he was very pleased to be invited to watch the exercise and that a U.S. training center held large scale exercises for territorial forces every 7 months and that was the place where solders learn how to fight. He added that your training center in Zhurihe was great and it was an ideal place for exercises. A brigade commander from a Singaporean armored unit said that as one of the first foreign observers to come to the exercise base he felt very happy and was shocked by the first large exercise he saw in China. He continued that Singapore was very small in size and could only rent foreign base for exercises.

On the way to the base were neatly aligned military vehicles and equipment including helicopter gunship, tanks, armored vehicles, infantry vehicles, artilleries and nearly 5 000 soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms belonging to different arms of the army. The foreign observers showed great interests in the exercise. A major from the British Army said that large training bases like this were rare and the Chinese troops had displayed their strong fighting power.

After a long trip, the foreign visitors arrived at their destination at 10:00am to watch the exercise in which the "Blue Army" and "Red army" launched fierce "attacks" against each other using various kinds of vehicles and equipment in a large area. Foreign observers recorded the exercises using their cameras or video cameras.

A brigade commander from a U.S. infantry unit commented that the exercise was organized in a scientific way, neither side knew the other's situations and it was like a real battle. A Tanzanian defense official praised the modernization of the Chinese troops and the effective coordination among different arms of the army.

According to the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense, the invitation of foreign military observers to watch the exercise was designed to increase military exchanges and cooperation between China and the rest of the world, to adjust to new military changes in the world and to build up friendship and mutual confidence.

Some comments from those observers echoed the words of the office. A senior Russian offficer said that the base was advanced, modern and practical and that the exercise could serve to increase the friendship and cooperation between the two countries. A Turkish military attache showed great interest in saying that they saw these highly qualified Chinese troops and the exercise would help strengthen military understanding and exchanges between China and Turkey. He finally added that the Chinese soldiers were welcome to Turkey to watch its military drills. (PLA Daily)


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