Unified inspection standards expected to coordinate various military unitsThe People's Liberation Army has published its first regulation governing military training, a move observers said will effectively boost the PLA's combat capabilities.The regulation was signed by President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, and will take effect on March 1, Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.The report said the regulation is the first of its kind for the Chinese military. It aims to improve training inspections and ensure that PLA units focus on combat capability, the report said.The regulation's 10 chapters and 61 clauses specify the duties and major tasks of training inspectors and prescribe the proper procedures and methods of inspection.Wu Peixin, a military observer in Beijing, said the regulation is expected to enable the PLA to better supervise units' training."Currently, the training of PLA units is examined and supervised by higher authorities, mainly based on those authorities' own rules, which are more or less different from each other," he said. "With the regulation, training will be organized and supervised with a unified set of standards, so it will be improved."Wu said the regulation stresses the importance of combat capability and urges units to make training as realistic as possible. Its implementation will help to build a stronger and more battle-ready PLA, he said.A military observer in Shanghai, who asked to be identified as Yang, said the PLA has put combat-ready exercises and joint operation capabilities at the top of its agenda, so it needs a regulation to make sure all forces conduct training in accordance with strict, unified standards.Xi has repeatedly ordered the military to improve its training so that it can fight and win a modern war.At a Central Military Commission conference in Beijing in early January, he urged the military to be fully aware of the nation's security and development trends; to strengthen the troops' awareness of crises, challenges and combat; and to make comprehensive preparations for military operations.Xi told the meeting that the armed forces must focus on improving their combat capabilities, and that whatever they do must align with that objective. rubber band holder braceletfigured wristbandembossed printed wristbandsyellow silicone braceletstwenty one pilots rubber bracelet
Pigs raised in the village of Fuyang city, Anhui province, Dec 5, 2018. [Photo/IC] Upgraded breeding methods and more supervision are needed, experts say Agricultural experts have called for upgrading pig breeding methods and tightening biosecurity after the ongoing African swine fever has exposed irregularities in the pig industry. China has reported 111 outbreaks of the highly contagious pig disease across 28 provincial-level regions as of February. The first case was detected in the northeastern province of Liaoning in August, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The rapid response mechanism, including quarantine and culling measures, has been effective in controlling the spread of the disease and mitigating economic loss, Yang Hanchun, a professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine of China Agricultural University, said at a news conference on Friday. More than 90 percent of the quarantines imposed on affected pig farms have been lifted, and infections due to the transport of live pigs and the use of kitchen waste have dropped recently, he said. However, we still face an arduous and stressful task ahead to curtail and eradicate the disease because of the massive number of small pig farms that are not equipped with effective biosecurity systems, Yang said. According to the ministry, China produces 700 million pigs a year. Farms that breed more than 500 hogs only account for one-fifth of the total, which means nearly 80 percent of hogs come from small farms that have outdated management practices and little biosecurity protection. The humongous volume of China's pig industry, and its complicated structure and widespread distribution, means it is infeasible to ditch cross-regional transport and trade, said Chen Huanchun, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He said it is crucial to increase awareness of disease control and prevention among small pig producers, and establish a chain of supervision covering production, transport, slaughter and processing. The epidemic also prompted the Ministry of Public Security to ramp up investigations into crimes linked to African swine fever. The public security authority said on Friday that it has launched probes into 32 criminal cases associated with the disease and detained 90 suspects. These cases involve 15,000 live pigs and 140 metric tons of pig products. In addition, police also uncovered more than 500 cases that involve processing or selling dead pigs or poultry. Nearly 1,000 suspects have been detained as a result.
