China has conducted national defense education in various forms to enhance the national defense awareness of the people, especially public servants, students, militia members and reservists, according to a white paper on China's national defense in 2004 issued Monday.

National defense education is absorbed into the curricula for civil servants and Party schools of the Communist Party of China, says the white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet.

More than 2,500 Party schools throughout China have offered courses on national defense education, in addition to special lectures, Military Day on camp and short-term training programs to improve the awareness of government functionaries in performing national defense duties.

National defense education has been incorporated into the courses of all kinds of schools at different levels. Some primary and secondary schools have also introduced activities in the form of juvenile military schools with national defense education as the theme.

College and university students are also obliged to receive basic military training. In 2003, says the white paper, some 1,100 colleges and universities and 11,500 senior high schools throughout China conducted military training as required and more than 8 million students received such training.

In addition, on major holidays, commemoration days and military recruitment occasions, national defense education is conducted across the country in the form of exhibitions, lectures, cultural and art performances, knowledge competitions and military summer camps.

Special columns or programs in such media as newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and web pages are devoted to national defense education. At present, nine provinces and municipalities have published newspapers or magazines on national defense education and more than 30 regions have set up websites on national defense education.

With such platforms like cemeteries of revolutionary martyrs, revolutionary sites, and memorial halls and museums which can be used for this purpose, national defense education has been provided in all parts of the country with nearly 200 million people educated every year, the white paper says.