Rules aim to build up PLA combat abilities

Unified inspection standards expected to coordinate various military units

The 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.