President Jiang Zemin stressed the importance of safeguarding the Party's absolute leadership over the army, as well as the necessity to focus on quality improvement in army building.
"Upholding the Party's absolute leadership over the army and preserving the nature of the people's army is a fundamental issue which we must always pay close attention to and work hard for," Jiang told the People's Liberation Army (PLA) delegation to the ongoing Second Session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) on March 12.
In order to guarantee the absolute leadership of the Party, top priority must be given to the political and ideological work in army building, said Jiang, also general-secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Jiang said that many major events will take place in China this year, and the work of maintaining social stability has become all the more important.
Calling the PLA a "strong pillar for the people's democratic dictatorship", he urged Party committees and leading bodies at all levels in the PLA to pay close attention to the development and changes of both domestic and global situations and take effective measures to maintain the army's stability through "powerful ideological education and strict management".
"We must guide the broad masses of officers and soldiers to enhance confidence in the reform, take a correct attitude toward interests readjustments in various reforms, and contribute to the great cause of reform through concrete action," he said.
According to the President, it is a fundamental guiding principle for the modernization efforts of the PLA to concentrate on improving the quality of the army.
"Since the early 1980s, our army has undergone several major cuts, with the number of troops sharply reduced," said Jiang. "Now a major task for us is to strive to improve the troops' quality and combat effectiveness."
Under the current conditions of an insufficient defense spending, it is necessary to readjust the army structure and develop a way of army modernization which costs less but works better, Jiang noted.
He stressed that the improvement of army quality must be based on the advancement of science and technology, which can be applied not only to developing advanced arms and equipment, but also to promoting military training and education and enhancing logistics guarantee.
The Chinese leader went on to say that as China is making active efforts to endorse the principle of "governing the country according to law", it is also necessary to promote the concept of "governing the army according to law".
"Governing the army according to law means that we must take a resolute stand in safeguarding the authority and seriousness of all military laws and regulations, which have provided a legal foundation for our army building efforts," said Jiang.
Efforts must be made to improve the ability of leading officials at all levels in the army to handle affairs in accordance with the law, as well as help them to learn how to use relevant laws and regulations to educate, guide and manage the troops, he added.
The President finally highlighted the necessity to step up efforts in selecting and fostering outstanding young officials, so as to "provide a strong organizational guarantee" for the army's development at the turn of the century.
"We also need to readjust and reform the existing personnel system within the army and establish a mechanism which enables all outstanding young cadres to show themselves," he concluded.
PLA generals including Zhang Wannian, Chi Haotian and Fu Quanyou attended the meeting.
March 13, 1999
Source:www.people.com.cn
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