China has decided to send additional 1,600 military officers in
the next few years for postgraduate education at 29 universities
and colleges, including the prestigious Tsinghua
University and Peking
University.
The decision was made by the Ministry of Education and the
General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)
recently to produce high-caliber officers for the modernization
drive of China's armed forces.
The move constitutes part of a program launched by the ministry
and the armed forces in 2001. Nearly 3,000 military officers have
since been trained at selected non-military institutions of higher
learning.
During a meeting of PLA delegates on postgraduate education
earlier this week, Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan said the armed
forces have brought forth more than 4,100 graduates with doctorate
degrees and over 22,500 graduates with master's degree since
1992.
According to a decision made at the meeting, PLA will further
improve postgraduate education for its military officers by
increasing the proportion of the contents on military sciences and
giving priority to engineering courses closely related to new,
high-tech weapons and equipment and information technology.
Liang Guanglie, chief of the PLA general staff, told the meeting
that more substantial efforts are needed to step up postgraduate
education in military specialties, and train more and more
postgraduates for front-line troops.
He called for a new mechanism to be worked out for training
military professionals through both military academies and
non-military institutions of higher education, and attract and
retain professionals.
According to an article in the latest edition of Outlook
newsweekly, PLA's massive training program was made after the
military summed up the changing military development trends, citing
the examples of wars in the Gulf region and Kosovo in the 1990s and
the war between Iran and Iraq in 1980s.
Western military officers, including those from the Untied
States, Britain, France and Japan, are well-educated and better
trained with expertise in sophisticated weaponry, it said.
During the Iraq-Iran war, approximately 50 modern Iraqi
warplanes, mostly imported from the Western developed nations, were
shot down in the first few days of the war, and 30 of them were
downed mistakenly by their own ground troops.
What making matters even worse, according to the article, the
ground troops of both countries did not know much about how to use
and operate some sophisticated imported tanks during the war.
The decisive factor in high-tech wars, however, still lies in
men, the article acknowledged.
Without well-trained soldiers, nevertheless, "it is impossible
to win a war with advanced weaponry and equipment," said the
article.
(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2003)