people's daily

18/10/1999, updated at 16:00

Planning to Build Picked Troops

��This is a report written by Xinhua correspondents Liu Huinian and Jia Yong and reporter of Liaowang (Outlook) on directing the army by the Party's third generation leadership core. The following are excerpts of the report:

��The People's Liberation Army, developed and grown up along with the great cause of reform, opening up and modernization, has, with its brilliant achievements of revolutionization, modernization and regularization, proved itself to be a "mighty, civilized and victorious army."

��The development and expansion of a revolutionary army cannot be achieved without being armed by scientific theory. The growth of the Party-led people's army from small to big and from weak to strong relies on the guidance of Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory.

��Ten years ago when reviewing the outstanding contributions made by the people's army led by Comrade Deng Xiaoping during the New Period of reform and opening up, Comrade Jiang Zemin, after becoming chairman of the Central Military Commission, said with deep feeling: "All achievements and progress gained in the building of our army over the past 10 years are the results of the correct leadership of Comrade Deng Xiaoping which embody his wisdom and efforts....Although he has stepped down from his post, his thought and theory on army building for the New Period are our valuable wealth, which will play a long-term guiding role in future army building, we should study and implement them in real earnest."

��At the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Comrade Jiang Zemin proposed that persistent implementation of Deng Xiaoping thinking on army building during the New Period be written into the political report he made on behalf of the Party Central Committee, using this thought to show the direction, unite the hearts of the army, unify steps and inspire officers and men to follow the road leading to a crack force with Chinese characteristics. In the building of national defense and the modernization of the army led by Comrade Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping's thought on army building has been carried out in a comprehensive manner and has been further enriched and developed in the course of practice-"being politically qualified and militarily perfect, and having a good style of work, strict discipline and effective guarantee of provisions" is regarded as the general requirement for comprehensively strengthening army building and is used to control the whole situation with regard to realizing the goal of army building in the New Period.

��The drafting of the military strategic principle for the New Period should be based on winning local war under the condition of modern technology, particularly high technology, which should be regarded as the datum point of military struggle;

��Building up a strong army and improving quality should be regarded as a major program for army development, army building is being changed from a quantity-scale type to a quality-efficiency type and from a labor-intensive type to a technology-intensive type;

��Ideological-political construction should be put in the first place, so as to guarantee the political firmness and ideological-moral purity of the broad masses of officers and men;

��Establishing a principle of strictly directing the army according to law and strengthening the legal construction of the army, in order to provide an important guarantee for the long-term development of our army;

��The training of cross-century talents should be regarded as the key factor affecting the success or failure of our cause;

��Launching an extensive and intensive and persistent campaign to study scientific theory and high-tech knowledge in the whole army and closely combining the two, so as to effectively improving the ideological quality and scientific and cultural quality of the officers and men;

��Calling for the establishment of a mechanism wherein economic construction and national defense building promote each other and undergo coordinated development, in order to blaze a trail for the building of national defense and the drive for army modernization, that requires less investment and yields higher efficiency;

��Resolutely stopping the army and armed police force from engaging in business activities, thus further advancing the building of good Party style of work and performing one's duty in a clean-handed manner.

��In recent years, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zeming at the core and the Central Military Commission have solved a series of theoretical and practical problems facing the building of national defense and the army under new historical conditions.

��In the spring of 1995 when Jiang Zemin came from Hunan to Jiangxi, he told the generals coming along with him, "I have all along been contemplating one question, that is how to enable our army to always adhere to the Party's leadership, so it will never change its political color."

��Adhering to the Party's absolute leadership over the army is the foundation underlying all our efforts to build the army.

��From the war years to the period of peaceful construction, our Party has led the people's army in forming and developing a whole set of fine traditions and styles of work. At an important army meeting held after the Party's 14th National Congress, Comrade Jiang Zemin summed up these fine traditions of the army into 10 aspects.

��At a forum of generals and cadets of the National Defense University in 1995, Comrade Jiang Zemin required that leading cadres at all levels must stress political awareness. He particularly noted that for the army, the most important thing is to stress political awareness.

��He stressed the need to carry out education in four aspects of patriotic dedication, a revolutionary outlook on life, respect for the cadres and loving care for the soldiers and hard struggle, and education in revolutionary integrity;

��Consolidating and developing a new-type relationship between army and government and army and civilians characterized by sharing a common fate and throwing one's lot with somebody and linking heart to heart;

��Promulgating the revised Regulations on the Political Work of the Chinese People's Liberation Army;

��Conducting education and consolidation in ideological style of work and discipline from higher to lower units in Party committees and organizations at and above the regiment level, and strengthening management of leading cadres at the higher and medium levels;

��Extensively conducting the "three-stresses" education (stressing theoretical study, political awareness, good conduct) among leading cadres all levels, particularly leading cadres of Party committee and organizations at and above the regiment level;

��From the very day of its birth, the people's army established its purpose: the people's army serves the people.

��On the initiation of chairman Jiang Zemin, there has emerged a widespread upsurge of emulating Lei Feng and heroes in the whole army, the ideals, character and temperament of heroes and models have become an important spiritual pillar inspiring the new generation of officers and men to withstand various tests and to perform meritorious deeds and make contributions to the Party and people.

��Over the past decade, the whole army has made concerted efforts to maintain its political qualities.

��In the 1998 gigantic fight against the devastating floods, the people's army fully demonstrated its high degree of political consciousness by resolutely obeying the Party's command and placing the interests of the people above all else. Seeing the heroic, fearless officers and soldiers, Jiang Zemin said with emotion, "facts prove that our army is worthy of the name of the people's army under the absolute leadership of the Party, and the people's own army who serves the people wholeheartedly and the iron wall defending the country and people, it is a revolutionary force that can be fully trusted by the Party and the people.

��Comrade Jiang Zemin has sensitively perceived that the rapidly developing modern technology has posed a grim challenge to our army. While having a discussion with experts and scholars from the University of National Defense Science and Technology, he said: the reality has told us that modern war has become a high-tech war, a three-dimensional war, an electronic war and a missile war, backwardness will put one in a passive position of being vulnerable to attack.

��He asked officers and men to study the characteristics of war being waged under high-tech conditions, and urged leaders from the Department of General Staff to understand the further strengthening of the army's awareness of science and technology from the high plane of strategy.

��Under the circumstance wherein the pursuit of quality superiority has become a worldwide trend in military rivalry, strengthening quality construction of the army is our inevitable choice.

��Over the past few years, the army has held and opened some 8,000 lectures and study classes on high technology. The broad masses of commanders and fighters have introduced high and new technology into the drilling grounds, setting off an upsurge in science and technology training.

��The repeated military exercises have indicated not only new improvements in our army's weaponry and equipment and defense capabilities, but also a qualitative leap in the military qualities of officers and men in the three services.

��On March 12, 1999, speaking for the Liberation Army Delegation at the Second Session of the Ninth National People's Congress, Comrade Jiang Zemin again made a comprehensive exposition on how to rely on scientific and technological progress to advance qualitative construction, stressing the need to implement the strategy for building a powerful army through science and technology.

��On October 1 this year, at the grand ceremony of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, officers and men of our army appeared in a graceful bearing on the Tiananmen Square to accept the review by chairman Jiang Zemin and the people. The appearance and bearing, morale, equipment and combat effectiveness of the army shown in the military review fully demonstrated to the world: the Chinese People's Liberation Army is an impregnable Great Wall of Steel.

��Comrade Jiang Zemin never for a moment forgets the grass-roots level and is always thinking of the million soldiers, he personally practices the work-style of "showing concern for and relying on the masses at every turn and in everywhere and doing everything for them,--the work-style initiated by Comrades Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

��Jiang has visited military camps in north and south of the Yangtze River and inside and outside the Great Wall to let million officers and men feel at heart the concern and warmth of the Party. Chairman Jiang has everything concerning soldiers at heart from their drinking, lighting, heating, bathing, clothing and eating to the cultural and recreational facilities at the grass-roots units.

��Ten years ago, Comrade Deng Xiaoping earnestly hoped that the whole army, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zeming at the core would make more and greater contribution to safeguarding state sovereignty and territorial integrity and defending the socialist cause of the motherland. Today, officers and men of the whole army advancing with great strides on the road to build crack troops have multiplied confidence and are filled with pride and enthusiasm in their journey toward the new century.

Opinion 1999-10-18 Page1
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