China's reserve army, the youngest force in China, has utilized computer networks to mobilize, assemble and train staff.
A reporter recently attended a modern reserve soldier drill taking place in a regiment of an infantry division in East China's Anhui Province.
The reporter saw a commander issuing orders by clicking a mouse in the regiment headquarters. The orders were sent in a few seconds to all battalions and companies via the net.
Two hours later, over 1,300 reserve officers and soldiers scattered over many villages and towns had arrived in the appointed area with their heavy weapons including anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft artillery and rocket guns.
Wu Xiaolong, the division commander said that the drill is not only to commemorate the ten year anniversary of Chairman of the Central Military Commission Jiang Zemin's inscription of China's reserve army, but also a good test for the troop's up-to-dateness.
In November 1991, Jiang inspected the infantry division and made an inscription for them.
In that year, Anhui Province suffered from serious floods and the reserve army made a great contribution to fighting the floods and saving state property.
China's reserve army has been listed in the organizational system of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), according to Wu.
The reserve army is now unified and has conferred army flag and code names. It is also equipped with some heavy weapons.
China's reserve army is one of most important forces to deal with unexpected events and emergency situations. It would also be quickly mobilized should war break out.
China's reserve army was first founded in 1955. At that time, Chengdu, Wuhan, Kunming and Lanzhou milltary area commands organized over 100,000 reserve soldiers.
But in 1957, the reserve duty system was abolished.
In 1983, China reorganized the reserve army.
In the 1990s, it was enlarged from a single infantry to a comprehensive force including infantry, artillery, armoured forces, signal corps and antichemical warfare corps.
In 1995, China enacted laws to protect the construction of the reserve army.
Currently, high-tech training measures are being widely used in China's reserve army and the personnel educational level has been greatly improved.
According to Wu, in Anhui reserve army's infantry division, six percent of officers have a Master's degree, 78 percent have graduated from institutes of higher education and 68 percent are technical personnel.
The division has also produced their own military software including civil air defence forces software and high-speed mobilization software.
Nowadays, the division can offer network drills, network information transmission, network supervision and network commanding.
(Xinhua News Agency November 15,2001)
