Special report: Marking 80th anniversary of PLA 

    JINAN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Company Commander Wang Yong felt surprised when he got the permission for a leave only a few days before their superiors' inspection team arrived.

    Usually the request for a leave at such a moment was inappropriate, but Wang, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Coast Defense Regiment officer in east China's Jinan Military Command, was worried about his pregnant wife who accidentally fell while taking a bath and delivered a baby earlier than scheduled.

    Wang hesitated before proposing to take a few days off. To his surprise, the regiment commissar Song Ruilun agreed immediately.

    It was never easy for a PLA officer to take a vacation, even asking for a leave was not agreed often, especially in an era promoting devotion and loyalty.

    Song, the commissar, recalled that in the past officers thinking of going home was taken as "disloyal" or "not concentrating their mind on work".

    He said a veteran senior PLA officer often taught their subordinates by saying "army men should leave all family staff to wives".

    According to Song, personal affairs were always less important than military career. The concept had deeply grown in the mind of PLA soldiers.

    Senior commanders as devotion models, PLA officers sometimes did not take vacations for years, unless getting married, wives giving birth or family members having serious illnesses. Being long away from home hurt officers' family relationship and brought about conflicts.

    PLA officers who gave up vacations were always models that all PLA members were asked to learn from. Wang and his comrades recently learned the story of the regiment political instructor surnamed Zhang who had not been home for almost four years, even not home when his father died because he had to carry out an emergent military mission.

    When the dedicated hero went home last year, Zhang was heartbroken to see his father's grave covered with weed. Such stories were common in the PLA. Wang was afraid one day he would face the same dilemma.

    Fortunately, gone are the days when vacations were only nominal. The PLA pays increasing attention to ensure the vacation right of officers and men.

    About 45 percent of officers in Wang's regiment had taken vacations this year, statistics showed.

    This is in line with "the concept of scientific development" emphasized by Chinese President Hu Jintao, which promotes a human-oriented, harmonious and sustainable development.

    "Only rest well can we work well. Only we care the family well can we concentrate our mind to the army," said Song, the commissar.

    Senior officers now no longer take the lead in giving up vacations, and taking the initiative to ask for a vacation won't affect promotion.

    In Song's regiment, if officers have not completed the "vacation quota", their superiors can not get a full annual bonus,and a 1,500-yuan (197.3 U.S. dollars) subsidy will be granted to those "who really can not take the vacation".

    Officers whose home in the countryside can take days off in thesecond or third quarter so as to help families with farming, and those living separately with their husbands and wives can choose to have vacations on May Day or National Day holidays for family get-together, said Hu Chongtao, a PLA regiment commissar in northeast China's Shenyang City.

President Hu: China's armed forces more modernized, professional

    BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has grown in strength and become more modernized and professional through eight decades of development, President Hu Jintao said on Wednesday.

    Hu, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a grand rally held in Beijing's Great Hall of the People to mark the PLA's 80th anniversary.

President Hu: China to build "slim but strong" armed forces

    BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Wednesday that China is to build "slim but strong" armed forces and strike a sound balance between speed, quality and efficiency in the modernization drive of the country's 2.3 million-member troops.

    At a meeting marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the Hall of the People, Hu said, "We must endeavor to achieve sound and fast modernization of national defense and armed forces."

President Hu urges developing defense-related science, technology

    BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- China should accelerate the upgrading of defense-related science and technology and weaponry, Chinese President Hu Jintao said here on Wednesday.

    Hu, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, said at the grand rally marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) that the country should boost the capacity for independent innovation.  

President: China to "gradually" increase defense budget

    BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Wednesday that China is going to gradually increase its defense budget while its national economy grows.

    "We will gradually increase input 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 national security and development," said Hu, also chairman of the Central Military Commission.

President Hu stresses PLA's loyalty to CPC

    BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao stressed here Wednesday the loyalty of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) 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 the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).

President Hu urges to improve national defense mobilization system 

    BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- China should improve its national defense mobilization system, Chinese President Hu Jintao said here on Wednesday.

    "We must have the participation of the whole people in strengthening national defense," Hu said.

PLA heroes vow to follow command of CPC

    BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut in space, said here on Wednesday that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) would continue to follow the command of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

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

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