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Senior Colonel Li Jie, researcher at the Naval Military Academic Research Institute and member of the Morning News Military Expert Group

April 17, 2013 07:38 Source: Jiefang.com-Morning News Author: Yang Yucai

Yesterday morning, the State Council Information Office released the white paper "Diversified Use of China's Armed Forces" in Beijing. This is the eighth time China has published a national defense white paper and the first time it has been published in the form of a special topic.

In terms of my country's military openness and transparency, the latest national defense white paper has achieved a number of breakthroughs. It not only disclosed for the first time my country's land, sea, air, second artillery and armed police forces, group army numbers, etc., it also mentioned for the first time the maintenance of China's overseas interests and the security of maritime strategic lanes. The problem.

Yesterday afternoon, a Morning News reporter interviewed Senior Colonel Li Jie, a researcher at the Naval Military Academic Research Institute and a member of the Morning News military expert team, over the phone to interpret the new version of the national defense white paper.

Interpretation 1·The strength of our military

The navy, army and air force have nearly 1.5 million troops.

The most attention-grabbing part of the latest national defense white paper is undoubtedly the second part, "Armed Forces Construction and Development." In this part, China disclosed for the first time the distribution of the 18 armies of the Chinese Army in the form of an official text, and also disclosed for the first time

Our country's army, navy and air force have nearly 1.5 million troops. Among them, the Army Mobile Combat Force has 18 group armies and some independent combined combat divisions (brigades), with a total of 850,000 people; the Navy currently has 235,000 people, with jurisdiction over the North Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea.

fleet; the Air Force currently has 398,000 personnel, and has jurisdiction over the air force of 7 military regions in Shenyang, Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu and 1 airborne corps.

In addition to the army, navy and air force, the white paper also introduced the Second Artillery and the Armed Police in detail, but did not announce the number of armed police and Second Artillery troops. Yesterday afternoon, Hou Xiaohe, associate professor of the Strategic Teaching and Research Department of the National Defense University, said in an interview with China.com that the Second Artillery

The number of people will not be easily announced, because once it is announced, the number of missile brigades China has can be calculated based on the number of people, so this is highly confidential data.

After 1949, the Chinese army once reached 6 million. After 10 military establishments and sanctions, the current 2.3 million Chinese army is the largest army in the world.

Expert interpretation

Li Jie believes that after China disclosed the designations of 18 group armies at the beginning of this year, this time it has disclosed the distribution of 18 group armies in the form of a white paper. First, it explains to the Chinese people and other countries around the world that although there is a certain scale, the numerical development of the Chinese army is

Moderate. At the same time, the rough deployment of several group armies in different areas has been made public this time, which shows that China's military has become more transparent and more confident.

Interpretation 2·Ocean issues

Protecting maritime rights and interests becomes a major responsibility of the military

It is worth noting that this year’s national defense white paper has added new content on maritime issues, including “maintaining maritime rights and interests”, “maintaining overseas interests”, and “maintaining the security of international sea lanes”.

The white paper points out that China is a big country with both land and sea. The ocean is an important space and resource guarantee for China to achieve sustainable development. It is related to the well-being of the people and the future of the country. Resolutely safeguarding the country's maritime rights and interests is an important responsibility of the People's Liberation Army.

In addition, carrying out overseas operations such as maritime escort, evacuation of overseas citizens, and emergency rescue have become important ways for the People's Liberation Army to safeguard national interests and fulfill international obligations.

The increased maritime component in the white paper has also attracted the attention of some foreign media. At yesterday morning's press conference, some foreign media asked whether the white paper proposed for the first time that the military should safeguard the country's overseas interests. Does this mean that the Chinese military will strengthen its overseas military presence?

, will you consider establishing overseas military bases?

In response, Colonel Wu Xihua, deputy director of the Emergency Office of the General Staff Headquarters, replied that China safeguards its overseas interests not to strengthen its overseas military presence, let alone to seek hegemony. China has not established military bases overseas.

Expert interpretation

Li Jie believes that under the new historical conditions, China's maritime security or threats are getting bigger and bigger, and the task of safeguarding maritime rights and interests is becoming more and more important.

"To give a small example, China now imports more than half of its oil from overseas. In order to ensure maritime trade and transportation, it is necessary to ensure the safety of sea lanes." Li Jie said that sea lanes include two concepts. One is normal shipping routes;

For example, the waters of the Gulf of Aden in Somalia are unsafe, so China has sent more than a dozen groups of warships to escort them; secondly, there are strait channels, such as the Strait of Malacca. In the future, in wartime or crisis situations, will they be able to ensure smooth, safe and effective channels?

Normal circulation is a very important proposition.

As for safeguarding overseas rights and interests, Li Jie believes that as China's economy gradually integrates into the world system, overseas interests have become an important part of China's national interests and require China's armed forces to safeguard them, and the tasks in this area will become increasingly heavy in the future.

Interpretation 3·Use of armed force

Fighting is the fundamental function of the military

Different from the past seven times, the national defense white paper released yesterday is the first time that our country has introduced in detail the diversified use of our country's armed forces in the form of a special topic.

Chapter 3 of the white paper points out that the fundamental mission of China’s armed forces is to consolidate national defense, resist aggression, and defend the motherland. The diversified use of China’s armed forces adheres to the core national security needs and focuses on maintaining peace, containing crises, and winning wars.

, defend border defense, coastal defense, and air defense security, strengthen combat readiness and actual combat exercises, respond at any time and resolutely stop all provocative behaviors that endanger national sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and resolutely safeguard the country's core interests.

At the press conference yesterday morning, Colonel Wu Xihua, deputy director of the Emergency Office of the General Staff Headquarters, also said that the identity of the military is first and foremost a combat team, and fighting is the inherent and fundamental function of the military. In this regard, the militaries of all countries in the world are no exception.

The white paper also points out that China's security and development are closely related to world peace and prosperity. China's armed forces have always been a staunch force in maintaining world peace and regional stability, and are committed to strengthening military cooperation with other countries, enhancing military mutual trust, and participating in regional and international security affairs.

Play an active role in the fields of international politics and security.

Expert interpretation

Li Jie told reporters that the previous seven were comprehensive national defense white papers. This time, the topic of "Diversified Use of my country's Armed Forces" was to highlight the feature of multi-purpose use. There were a total of 10 comprehensive white papers in the past. This part is comprehensive; this time the theme part only has five aspects of content, of which the third, fourth and fifth parts focus on the multi-faceted use of our country’s armed forces at three levels.

"Guaranteeing the country's economic and social development is the second level of the diversified use of China's armed forces. The international obligation of China's armed forces is to maintain world peace and regional stability." Li Jie told reporters to participate in national construction and participate in emergency rescue and disaster relief.

, maintaining social stability, safeguarding maritime rights and interests and overseas interests are all to ensure the development of the country's economy and society.

Li Jie believes that the new national defense white paper describes the diversified use of China’s armed forces in a very detailed and thorough manner.

Interpretation 4·Cooperation with foreign militaries

Joint exercises and training are on the rise

The white paper published yesterday also revealed that since 2002, the People's Liberation Army has held 28 joint exercises and 34 joint trainings with 31 countries based on agreements or agreements. The People's Liberation Army adheres to the policy and strategy of non-alignment, non-confrontation, and non-targeting of third parties.

Based on the principles of reciprocity, equal participation, and reciprocal implementation, we conduct multi-level, multi-field, and multi-service bilateral and multilateral joint exercises and training with foreign militaries.

Among them, joint anti-terrorism military exercises have been institutionalized within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. China and SCO member states have jointly held 9 bilateral and multilateral joint military exercises, which have deterred and attacked the forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism, and improved Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s

The ability of member states of the Organization to jointly respond to new challenges and threats.

In addition, joint exercises and training between Chinese and foreign militaries involving the Chinese army, navy and air force have also been continuously expanded and deepened.

Expert interpretation

Li Jie told reporters that from the joint exercises and training between Chinese and foreign militaries disclosed in the white paper, it can be seen that on the one hand, our transparency is increasing; on the other hand, the overall number of joint exercises and training participated by the Chinese military in recent years has been on the rise. "2009 was the year

6 times in 2010, 11 times in 2011, 7 times in 2011, and 12 times in 2012. It has gone through a wave shape and is generally on the rise. It shows that the exchanges, joint exercises and training between our army and foreign armies have improved.

There are more exchanges on combat effectiveness, greater intensity, and more openness."