Chinese Military Exercises on South and East China Sea Coasts
People 's Liberation Army's (PLA) naval, air, and ground forces held successful large scale joint landing exercises earlier this month, the PLA reported Friday.
The military exercises were held in the coastal parts of Zhejiang Province and the southern part of Guangdong Province. Taking part in the exercises were the forces of the Nanjiang and Guangzhou Military Area Commands, the Second Artillery Corps and reserves.
Chinese Military Completes Landing Exercises
The People's Liberation Army's (PLA) naval, air, and ground forces held large joint landing exercises earlier this month in the coastal parts of Zhejiang Province and the southern part of Guangdong Province.
The troops participating were from the Nanjing and Guangzhou Military Area Commands, the Second Artillery Corps, and reserves.
The successful exercises showed how the PLA has improved its joint military combat capacity and the success of its modernization drive and how it is ready to defend the country's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and to crack down on any separatist acts.
Zhang Wannian, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, was present at the exercises and conveyed the greetings of President Jiang Zemin and the Central Military Commission to the PLA and militia members participating in the exercises.
The PLA did a landing exercise armed with high-tech weapons on the East China Sea, where the Opium War took place in the last century. Officers and enlisted personnel moved heavy weapons and swiftly completed the formation of combat groups.
Thousands of PLA and militia personnel attacked "enemy forces" from landing craft with covering fire from Naval vessels and combat aircraft. They quickly obtained control of the air and sea and resisted long-range air and marine attacks by the "enemy". Air forces and naval guns struck at "enemy" targets simultaneously.
Chen Bingde, commander of the Nanjing Military Area Command, told Xinhua that his area command can mobilize more than 100,000 civilian ships for military use if necessary to meet the needs of large-scale sea crossings and landing operations.
On the South China Sea, thousands of PLA personnel from the Guangzhou Military Area Command took part in a two-pronged landing operation. The team on the left, composed of ground forces and marines, began attacking "enemy" forces with missiles, aircraft, helicopter gunships, and naval guns, with minesweepers and other forces removing barriers and establishing landing sites.
On the right, a landing team of ground forces and special forces seized the port area quickly and paratroopers controlled strategic points, while air forces and the artillery and armored corps engaged the "enemy" and suffocated its counterattack.
The military exercise provided a spectacular sight of a straits- crossing and landing operation by Chinese forces armed with high- tech weapons.
The new equipment doubled the might of land, naval and air forces, military analysts said, and advanced naval vessels, aircraft, and electronic warfare technology gave the PLA total of the sea and air and electronic communications mastery.
Landing ships, hovercraft, helicopters, and other modern forms of transportation gave the attack invincibility and a computerized artillery system gave more flexibility, they said. An automated command system connecting troops and headquarters greatly increased the efficiency when combined with pilotless scouts and a comprehensive intelligence system in the war zone, they said.
Both Tao Bojun, the chief of staff, and Liu Shutian, the political commissar, of the Guangzhou Military Zone, told Xinhua that the land, naval, and air forces have increased research, training reforms, technology, and proficiency of officers and enlisted personnel to defend the unity of the Chinese nation, in recent years.
Political and ideological work, tough military training, and advanced weapons will give the military full ability to accomplish all the tasks assigned by the Party and the people, they said.
Party committees, governments at all levels, and the general public in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces took an active part in the exercises by providing materials and demonstrating their determination to work with the military to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
After inspecting the soldiers afterwards, Zhang Wannian said that Taiwan's Lee Teng-hui has broken away from the "one China" principle and has been preaching his "two-state theory", which has completely exposed his malicious attempt to separate Taiwan from China and destroy the possibility of peaceful reunification.
Lee Teng-hui has been seriously defiant and has provoked the Chinese people, he said, adding that the exercises displayed the Chinese military's strong determination to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its strength to maintain national unity.
Zhang warned Lee Teng-hui that he who plays with fire will get burnt. The reunification of the motherland is a historical trend and the goal of all Chinese, he said.
Zhang said that the divisive forces are going against this historical trend. They are overrating themselves and courting their own destruction. "Our policy on the Taiwan issue remains one of `peaceful reunification and the one country, two systems' and we will never commit ourselves to abandoning the use of force," he said.
The PLA will take the will of the nation as its supreme will, take the interests of the nation as its supreme interests, and have the determination, confidence, ability, and resources to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Zhang said.
It will never tolerate any attempts to divide the country and will never sit idly by to watch even an inch of territory being taken from the motherland, he said, and warned that the PLA is keeping a close eye on developments in cross-Straits relations and is ready to crush any evil attempts to separate the motherland.
He asked China's armed forces to unite around the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Central Military Commission with Jiang Zemin at the core and to do more rigorous training and prepare for action to contribute to the reunification and rejuvenation of China.
Li Changchun, a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, and Cao Gangchuan, a member of the Central Military Commission, were present for the military exercises. (Xinhua)
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