Cadre Training
The PLA persists in taking the training of
high-quality military personnel of a new type as a fundamental measure for
promoting a leapfrog development of the armed forces' modernization.
Cadres
of the PLA include
officers and non-ranking cadres. In recent years, the PLA has constantly raised
the training level of officer candidates, adjusted the sources of officer
candidates, and established a scientific and justified system for training such
candidates, resulting in a marked improvement in the training level, quality and
efficiency of military personnel. At present, more than 80% of the PLA's cadres
have received junior college or higher education. More than 30,000 have doctor's
or master's degrees, and many of them hold leading posts at the division or
regiment level. At the same time, in order to draw on the useful armed forces
building experiences of other countries, particularly developed countries, the
PLA has since 1996 sent nearly 1,000 servicemen to study in over 20 countries, a
considerable number of them being commanding or technical officers at the
division or regiment level.
Both the Law of the PRC on Officers in Active Service
passed by the Standing Committee of the NPC in December 2000 and the Regulations
on Non-Ranking Officers of the PLA issued by the CMC in June 1999 explicitly
stipulate that commanding officers and non-ranking officers without technical
specialty, as well as ranking officers with technical specialty and non-ranking
officers with technical specialty should receive training at relevant colleges
and schools or other training institutions before their promotion; and that
cadres in leading organs should have undergone training at appropriate colleges
or schools. Cadre's on-the-job training is gradually undergoing a change from
academic credentials education to all-round continuing education. Except for a
small number of cadres who have to take academic credentials education, the
overwhelming majority of cadres would update their knowledge mainly through
short-term training.
In May 2000, the State Council and the CMC promulgated
the Decision on Establishing a System for Training Military Cadres by Reliance
on Regular Institutions of Higher Learning, clearly stressing the role of
regular higher education in the modernization of national defense and the armed
forces, so as to widen the channel for the selection and training of
high-caliber personnel for the military. So far, more than 50 institutions of
higher learning, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, have
undertaken the task of training personnel for the armed forces, providing a
large batch of outstanding personnel for the PLA each year.
To meet the requirement of building a strong military
through science and technology, the PLA pays great attention to the training of
high-level personnel. In the past two years, the PLA's mobile post-doctoral
stations and doctor's or master's degree authorization centers have increased by
large margins, the academic degree authorization system has been improved
gradually, and the training scale has been enlarged substantially. In May 2002,
the Academic Degree Commission under the State Council examined and approved the
Plan of Setting Up Specialties for the Master Degree of Military Science, and
decided on the setting up of specialties for the master degree of military
science as an experiment, marking a new stage in the training of high-level
professionals for the armed forces.
The PLA regards the exchange of cadres as an important
channel for training and tempering them and raising their quality. The Law of
the PRC on Officers in Active Service further clarifies and standardizes the
exchange of officers. The Regulations on the Appointment and Removal of the PLA
Officers in Active Service promulgated by the CMC in January 2002 lays down
concrete stipulations on the condition, scope, organization and implementation
of officer exchange. In accordance with the Interim Provisions on the Rotation
of Cadres of the PLA Garrison in Hong Kong promulgated in December 1998, a
regular rotation system has been instituted for all cadres of the garrison force
in Hong Kong, and three batches of cadres have so far been rotated. A rotation
system of this kind has also been instituted for the PLA Garrison in
Macao.
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