15:24 GMT, September 5, 2011 Since 2008, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (APF) have fulfilled a series of tough military operations other than war.
Military operations other than war have become an important way to use military power since 2008.
The Central Military Commission (CMC) has made a series of decisions and plans to strengthen the capacity building of military operations other than war, and issued the Military Operations Other than War Capacity-Building Plan that provides the guideline and measures for the accomplishment of diverse non-military tasks.
The years since 2008 prove to be the most active period of the Chinese military, during which it deployed the largest scale of military force, performed the most kinds of action and was responsible for the most concentrated tasks in peacetime. According to the statistics from the Operations Department under the PLA General Staff Headquarters (GSH), since 2008, the Chinese military has called out 2.444 million servicemen, organized 7.82 million militiamen and reservists, and dispatched more than 6,700 aircraft/sorties for military operations other than war.
The military has set up a leading group to handle emergencies. The four general headquarters/departments, major military area commands, and services and arms of the PLA also set up corresponding leading groups, and established joint coordination mechanisms with state agencies and local governments to ensure that they promptly launch emergency mechanisms once the CMC makes decisions.
Emergency command agencies at all levels in the military have also participated in national and local governments’ corresponding leading agencies for disaster prevention and reduction, flood control, disaster relief, production safety, forest fire prevention and so on to establish an action coordination mechanism.
Currently, a system of mapping, meteorology and communication support that serves military operations other than war is under construction. The Emergency Office of the GSH of the PLA is in close communication and contact with more than 20 departments including those of public security, civil affairs, water conservancy, forestry, earthquake, oceans and weather to enable information sharing at the headquarters level. The GSH of the PLA and relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Transport established the GSH - PLA Navy - Escort Taskforce "Blue Shield Action", a three-tier command system. The command center in Beijing has video calling and data transmission capabilities to communicate with warships. In the East China Sea and the South China Sea, the PLA Navy has established a maritime sea right-safeguarding-action co-ordination mechanism with the departments of maritime surveillance, fishery administration and public security marine police to effectively safeguard national maritime rights and interests.
Relying on the current command system, the military also established cooperation relations of anti-terrorism command and stability maintenance with state and local governments. Under the unified leadership of local Party committees at all levels, the provincial military area commands, garrisons and APF played a part in the joint-command agencies of anti-terrorism and stability maintenance at the corresponding level. The PLA has also organized and participated in international joint anti-terrorism exercises including the Sino-Russian "Peace Mission 2009," China-Pakistan "Friendship 2010", SCO joint anti-terrorism exercises and China-Romania anti-terrorism training, improving its emergency command capacity on international communication platforms.
Efficient and versatile emergency rescue forces of the PLA and APF have developed combat power. It is learned from the GSH of the PLA that as of the end of 2010, with the support of the national authorities and local governments, the Chinese military had built professional state-level emergency response teams of 50,000 people in 8 categories, and all the military area commands (MACs) of the PLA had set up provincial emergency response teams of 45,000 people in 9 categories.
These professional teams, including engineering, medicine, transportation, NBC, emergency communication, maritime search and rescue and others, are equipped with helicopters, large-scale engineering machinery, field medical equipment and life detection devices and other advanced equipment, and basically have the capabilities of rapid response, force projection, specialized rescue, command and coordination and comprehensive support as well as the capacity to support political work.
A national earthquake disaster emergency rescue team mainly made up of the engineer regiment from a group army under the PLA Beijing MAC has been recognized by the United Nations as the world's 12th and Asia's 2nd international heavily armed rescue team. In the Wenchuan earthquake relief, on the average every three players of the China International Rescue Team saved one earthquake sufferer and all the rescued personnel survived.
The Zhouqu landslide rescue work was a typical case of the deployment of the PLA professional soldiers. The PLA mainly deployed engineer, chemical defense, pontoon bridge, hydropower, transportation, communication and hygiene and disease control troops for disaster relief and rescue. The next day after the landslide, an engineer regiment of a group army under PLA Lanzhou MAC conducted eight underwater demolitions of barrier dams. A hydropower troop unit under the Chinese People Armed Police Force (APF) used large machines to timely dredge up the river channels.
The PLA air force, navy, army aviation, air defense, engineer, chemical defense, medical service, diving, nuclear, chemical and biological security inspection and monitoring troops played an important role in security and guard tasks for such significant events as the Beijing Olympic Games and the Shanghai World Expo.
The Chinese peacekeeping force cleared nearly 10,000 landmines and explosives buried in an area of 85,000m2 in various task areas. Having accomplished quality projects following high standards, the Chinese peacekeeping engineers are hailed as creators of “The China Speed” and “The China Miracle” by the international community.
• After the Wenchuan earthquake, 146,000 PLA soldiers rapidly traveled to the disaster areas by air and land from around the country. They dug out 3,338 survivors from the debris and rescued over 1.4 million trapped people. During the earthquake relief and disaster rescue in Yushu County, the PLA deployed 16,000 officers and men to rescue 1,564 people. In the rescue and relief efforts during the Zhouqu landslide, the PLA dispatched over 7,600 officers and men to search and rescue 53 survivals and treat and cure 25,000 people.
• On December 26, 2008, a naval escort taskforce from the PLA Navy sailed to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast to perform escort tasks for the first time. As of the end of June 2011, the PLA had organized nine naval escort taskforces, dispatched 27 ships and vessels and fulfilled 316 escort tasks for 3,681 ships. This year, after the outbreak of civil war in Libya, the “Xuzhou” warship of the PLA Navy on escort mission in the Gulf of Aden sailed to the Mediterranean Sea at top speed to escort a passenger liner carrying Chinese evacuees.
• In the disaster rescue of the Wenchuan earthquake, the PLA Air Force and the aviation troops of the PLA Army urgently deployed over 200 airplanes and helicopters of all types to transport 39,000 people and over 7,700 tons of materials via a total of more than 5,400 flights. It was the largest air transportation operation in the history of PLA disaster rescue and relief. In order to speed up the pace of evacuating Chinese people from Libya, the PLA Air Force urgently dispatched 4 IL-76 transport planes with each plane flying over 30,000 km in 46 hours. The 1,655 Chinese evacuees in the last batch all successfully left Libya.
• In recent years, the PLA and the APF dispatched more than 260,000 officers and men, 200 airplanes and 102 ships and warships to undertake security and guard tasks for such grand events as the Beijing Olympic Games, Shanghai World Expo, Guangzhou Asian Games and Shenzhen Universiade.
• In recent years, the PLA and the APF dispatched professional forces to fight forest fires in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Funing County of Hebei Province, Taian City of Shandong Province and other places, effectively protecting China’s forest resources. A water supply engineering troop unit of the PLA implements tasks nationwide such as digging wells to fight against drought and contributing numerous streams of life to people.
• In June 2008, a troop unit of the PLA airborne force urgently blocked off the dam in the Mianyuan River. In July 2010, an engineer regiment of a group army under the PLA Lanzhou MAC successfully blocked off the crevasse of the Luofu River in Weinan City of Shaanxi Province. In June 2010, a transportation troop unit of the APF successfully blocked off the crevasse of the Changkai Dam of Fuhe River in Jiangxi Province.
• Since 2008, the PLA has dispatched 7,735 officers and men to participate in international peacekeeping operations and sent 291 officers and men to take part in disaster rescue in Indonesia and other countries. At present, China has a total of 2,100 peacekeepers implementing peacekeeping operations within the framework of the United Nations, contributing the biggest number of peacekeeping officers and men among the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council.
----
Wu Tianmin, Han Guoxian and Li Yun / PLA Daily