PLA Daily 2004-07-14

　　

PLA Daily 2004-07-14

In promoting military changes, our approach to emphasize on taking informationization as the predominant element and on speeding up the progress of informationization development is beyond any doubt a practice to go with the tide of the times. However, this doesn't mean that we should give up mechanization. Mechanization and informationization are dialectically united. Elements, including information, mobilization and firepower, have all along co-existed with each other and promoted each other. Mechanization of the army is the basis for informationization and also the carrier of informationization. Without the high-performance mechanization as the platform, even the best information technologies are ineffective. In respect to the practical situation of our armed forces, there is still a wide gap between our army and the armies of the western developed countries in terms of the firepower, mobile operation capability, assault and defending ability. Therefore, our army should accomplish the duel-tasks of mechanization and informationization constructions at the same time. 　　Military development history demonstrates that military change is usually a constant and continuous process. Another change will start to unfold before the previous one has been completed. Such continuity decides that new military changes must feature duality, where both the "inertia" of the industrial society and "spirits" of the informationized society co-exist, making it difficult to find a "watershed". Because of the above-mentioned reasons, we should proceed from the actual situation of our country and army, and stick to driving mechanization with informationization and promoting informationization with mechanization. We should tap the full potentials of the existing armament, while making great efforts to develop high-tech armament and equipment. We should revamp and update the existing armament with IT so as to realize the mutual development of mechanization construction and informationization construction. 　　By Xu Shihong 　　(July 14, PLA Daily)