December 9:
Hong Kong’s Beijing-leaning Wen Wei Po reports that an article that recently appeared in the PLA Daily (Jiefangjun Bao) “reflects both the current real problems the military's high echelon is now concerned with and its mainstream thinking.” Zhang Zhaoyin, deputy commander of the 14th Group Army of the People’s Liberation Army’s Chengdu Military Region, the article’s author, argued that “regardless of the changes in situations or its mission, preparation for war should not slack in the slightest degree” and that the PLA should “firmly establish a war-readiness mentality.” Zhang added, “As far as the military is concerned, there is no peacetime, only wartime and war preparation time.” According to Zhang this preparation is necessary because “for nearly 30 years the PLA has largely not seen combat and men generally have inadequate mental preparation for combat operations.” In addition to combat missions the article said “the PLA should go on to expand its capabilities to carry out noncombat military operations.”
December 12:
In several reports carried by the Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN, a Russian arms trade official insisted that Russian-Chinese military-technology cooperation - as Russia terms the sale of its weaponry to other nations - is alive and well. Mikhail Dmitriyev, director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, insisted a new stage in military-technology cooperation was about to begin with a new focus on high-tech weaponry. "China", he said, "is no longer interested simply in the supply of weapons and equipment, because that country is quite capable of producing some models on its own, without our help."
To demonstrate their new commitment to cooperation, Dmitriyev pointed out that Moscow and Beijing were teaming up to develop the next generation of Sukhoi fighter aircraft. "China will not only continue with production of Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets under license, but will also cooperate with us across the whole spectrum of the Su aircraft, including the Su-35 multirole fighter, which we are offering to them and which we are going to develop jointly." Talks on a number of high-tech military cooperation contracts are now under way and a number of new Russian arms supply contracts will reportedly soon be signed with China. Russia has exported some 25 billion dollars worth of arms to China, mainly aircraft, warships and air defense missile systems, over the past 15 years, Interfax noted.
December 16:
The Taipei Times reports direct cross-Strait flights, shipping and mail services were launched on December 15, with the first flight to mainland China taking off from Taipei at 8am. TransAsia Airways flight GE332 left Taipei Songshan Airport with 144 passengers and landed in Shanghai at 9:50am. China’s first direct flight to Taiwan was a Shenzhen Airlines plane that arrived at Taiwan’s Songshan Airport at 8:45am. China Airlines and Eva Airways will also fly aircraft with twice the capacity out of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport which will also transport parcels. Meanwhile, at Kaohsiung Harbor, direct shipping links got underway at 10am, when the Uni-Adroit, a full-container ship owned and operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp, set sail for Tianjin. Presiding over the launch ceremony in Kaohsiung, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said he was pleased about the establishment of the links, adding that he had published a white paper on direct air and shipping links 16 years ago when he was vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).
December 17:
According to the PLA Daily (Jiefangjun Bao), the Chinese Navy conducted its first large-scale sea-borne antiterrorism training exercise recently in the South China Sea. Several types of naval vessels and ship-mounted helicopters took up positions as operational organizations, deploying a three-dimensional cordon around "terrorists," then surrounding and annihilating them at close quarters. The report said the “action was strongly focused, and that it displayed the Chinese Navy's antiterrorism capabilities at their maximum.”
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