"We must persist in taking modernization as our central task and make overall arrangements for army building and military reform in a scientific way. We must strive to develop the capabilities of dealing with various security threats and accomplishing diversified military tasks. " This important remark of Chairman Hu Jintao at the plenary session of the PLA delegation has stimulated Deputy Fang Qingling to do some hard thinking. He held that diversified military tasks have called upon us to foster high quality military personnel.

　　Fang Qingling said that diversified military tasks have provided an opportunity for us to foster highly competent military personnel: prevention and control of SARS and bird-flu had prompted the establishment of global infectious disease early-warning mechanism; tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters had triggered military rescue operations with many countries involved. In recent years, the PLA has participated in more and more international peacekeeping operations, such as the peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Congo (Kinshasa) and Libya, and made contributions to the world peace. He believed that diversification of military missions has set new standards and new requirements for the cultivation of a contingent of highly competent military personnel, and "high intelligence and versatile skills" should be an inevitable development direction. He suggested that the cultivation of talents in combination with various military tasks with specific objectives in mind should be further strengthened in the future.

　　By Dong Qiang

　　(Mar.14, PLA Daily)