Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a speech at a grand rally which opened at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, August 1, 2007, marking the 80th anniversary of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. (Xinhua Photo)

　　BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of servicemen from China's land, navy and air forces wore their new uniforms on Wednesday at a grand rally marking the PLA's 80th anniversary on which Chinese President Hu Jintao stressed the importance of army loyalty to the Communist Party of China (CPC).

　　"To follow the CPC's command is the overriding political requirement that the Party and Chinese people have placed on the PLA and is the unshakable and fundamental principle for the PLA," said Hu, also general secretary of CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), in his keynote speech.

　　On August 1, 1927, CPC-led armed forces held an uprising in Nanchang, now capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, which is regarded as the founding day for the PLA.

　　"Over these 80 years, the PLA has fostered its fine revolutionary traditions," he said, stressing "the traditions, in essence, mean that the PLA is forever at the CPC's command and the service of the people and should be valiant."

　　The PLA has made great contributions to national independence, prosperity and strength, and the well-being of the people over the past 80 years, under the leadership of three generations of the Party's collective leadership with Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin at its core, and under the leadership of the collective leadership of the Party formed at the Party's 16th National Congress, said Hu.

　　The PLA currently has 2.3 million members. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, more than 300,000 army men have sacrificed their lives on duty in wars, at construction sites or fighting against SARS or floods.

　　Hu also said the Chinese People's Liberation Army had grown in strength and become more modernized and professional through eight decades of development.

　　The PLA is "no longer a small, single-service force, but a strong and multiple-service force," which has made progress in modernization and is stepping toward an information technology-based army, Hu said.

　　He said China's defense budget would gradually be increased as its national economy grew.

　　"We will gradually increase investment in national defense as the economy grows, and continue to modernize national defense and the armed forces in a way that serves the interests of our national security and development," he said.

　　The Chinese top legislature approved in March a national defense budget for the 2007 fiscal year of 44.94 billion U.S. dollars, an annual increase of 17.8 percent.

　　Hu said, the modernization of national defense and armed forces "is the historical mission of the PLA and the common cause of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups."

　　The President stressed that, while adhering to the defensive nature of the country's military buildup, China must build a "slim but strong" armed forces by striking a sound balance between speed, quality and efficiency in the modernization drive of the country's 2.3 million-member troops.

　　Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut in space, said at the grand rally that the PLA would continue to follow the command of the Communist Party of China.

　　"We will follow the orders of the CPC Central Committee, the Central Military Commission and Chairman Hu," Yang said.

　　To celebrate the 80th anniversary, and another sign of the PLA's modernization drive, the PLA launched the biggest ever-uniform change in its history. On August 1, some enlisted men wore their new uniforms for the first time to celebrate Army Day and the PLA will spend three years to change the uniform for all its 2.3 million members.

　　Dubbed "07 Style", the new ceremonial uniforms for the first time adopt a chest insignia, a mainstay of most western military uniforms, to reveal wearers' rank and length of service.

　　Berets have been introduced as standard-issue summer headgear, reminiscent of the NATO look, while Navy rank badges move down from the shoulders to the sleeves in line with international practice.

　　"Increasing global military exchanges have upped the requirements for PLA uniforms. The new outfits fuse global trends with Chinese characteristics," general Liao Xilong, chief of the PLA General Logistics Department, previously told Xinhua.

　　An exhibition opened in Beijing from middle July at which declassified PLA materials, such as research papers on atomic weapons and satellites, were put on display.

　　The exhibition showcases the development of the PLA after the founding of New China.

　　The exhibits include missiles and models of the country's first atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb. And a manually operated mechanical computer, which was used in the research and development of atomic weapons, was put on public view for the first time.

　　Advanced military weaponry was on display, including new types of ground-to-ground missiles, medium-range surface-to-air missiles, fighter aircraft and new logistic outfits.