The year of 2008 witnesses a crucial turning point of the external publicity work of the Chinese military.

　　In early 2008, the Ministry of National Defense formally established the military news release system. Subsequently, a series of events such as the Wenchuan earthquake rescue and relief, participation into the Beijing Olympics security support and the Shenzhou VII manned space flight mission placed the PLA and the Armed Police Force (APF) under the spotlight of domestic and foreign media. According to a statistics, more than 1,000 Chinese and foreign reporters went to the quake areas and covered the rescue troops during the days of quake rescue and relief operations. About 98% of responsible officers of regiments or above of all the rescue troops received interviews by media.

　　In the process of fulfilling the historical mission in the new century and the new period and enhancing capabilities to respond to multiple security threats and complete diversified military tasks, the Chinese military needs not only a enormous combat capacity but also a powerful support from the public opinion. Such being the case, the external publicity has become an issue of strategic importance to the overall situation of the Chinese military.

　　In recent years, the external publicity departments of the PLA have been initiative to hold major publicity activities conforming to international situations of public opinion. China has released five white papers on the national defense to brief the world China's national defense policy that is defensive in nature, Chinese military has held news release conferences on many occasions to disclose authorized information and organized groups of Chinese and foreign reporters to pay visit to or make interviews in military barracks, training fields and naval ships returning from or bound for out-going visits.

　　In order to publicize the conductive role China has played in solving the Darfur Conflict and demonstrate the image of a peaceful and mighty force of the Chinese army, the first batch of servicemen of the Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Darfur, Sudan, who were receiving training in Qinyang, Henan Province, received interviews from news agencies from 13 countries and regions including the U.S., UK and Germany and some domestic media reporters on September 15, 2007.

　　Until last July when the follow-up troops of the Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Darfur started their journey to Sudan, the peacekeeping affairs office under the Ministry of National Defense has worked together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to organize three news covering activities in which more than 80 reporters from 40 Chinese and foreign news agencies entered the camp area of the Chinese peacekeeping engineers.

　　In 2007, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, the Xinhua News Agency Military Branch unveiled a large special report on theme of "Showcasing a Peaceful Force to the World". It issued more than 350 stories in Chinese and English, of which over 200 were published simultaneously in Russian, French, Spanish, Arabian and Portuguese, hitting a foreign media adoption rate of 100%, proving remarkably effective in easing the so-called "China military threat".

　　The Central Military Commission and the PLA four general headquarters/ departments have attached great importance to the cultivation of military external publicity professionals. In 2008, the first military external publicity theory and practice seminar and the PLA first advanced seminar on external publicity were held in succession, producing a batch of innovative theoretical fruits in military external publicity practice.

　　By Li Donghang

　　(Oct 28, PLA Daily)                                                  Editor: Ouyang Dongmei