Senior officers from the People's
Liberation Army (PLA) were grouped into a military academy Monday
for high-tech training to enhance the PLA's high-tech ability,
according to a report in the PLA Daily.
According to a plan approved by the
Central Military Commission, the training is supposed to meet the
needs of China's ongoing military reform.
The courses will focus on the learning
of information technology and the study of wars in the information
age and the army's information-based construction, said the
paper.
The academy was set up at the National
University of Defense Technology in Hefei, capital of central
China's Anhui Province. A group of
specially selected academicians and experts have been arranged to
teach the officers.
The PLA had long ago decided to further
improve education for its military officers by enhancing military
science education and giving priority to engineering courses
closely related to new, high-tech weapons and equipment and
information technology.
China had decided to send an 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.
As part of a program launched by the
Ministry of Education and the armed
forces in 2001, nearly 3,000 military officers have since been
trained at selected non-military institutions of higher
learning.
During an earlier meeting of PLA
delegates on postgraduate education, 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.
(People's Daily October 15,
2003)