Long march and unending victories

The PLA is an all-pervasive force with multidimensional characteristics, a combat-ready force par excellence. I had the opportunity to live with a PLA garrison near Beijing for about a month in mid-1977. Ziaur Rahman, then Bangladesh president, who believed in strong Sino-Bangla relations, had sent me to China to study the Chinese language for my future employment as military attach in the embassy. For my outdoor study (kai men ban xue), Beijing Modern Languages Institute sent me to a PLA unit, where I lived in the barracks with PLA junior commanders.

There was no rank system in the PLA at that time and officers were called commanders and soldiers, or fighters. It was there that I was introduced to Sun Tzu's brilliant war treatise, The Art of War. The PLA unit I lived with was self-sufficient in meeting its needs. It had its own uniform- and shoe-making factories, its own agricultural land to grow grains and vegetables, and its own cattle farm. It also had a pharmaceutical division where it made medicines to meet the unit's needs, selling the surplus outside.

Bangladesh pursues a no-aggression defense policy but is determined to defend every inch of its land. To achieve military deterrence in land, air and sea, Bangladesh was looking for friendly countries in the mid-1970s that could help it strengthen its defense capability. China, whose ties with Bangladesh go back to ancient times, came forward to help it do so after Bangladesh opened its embassy in Beijing in October 1975. Along with political and economic relations, the two countries also started their defense cooperation.

The PLA has remained a people's force despite its modernization and technological advancement. In having the PLA, according to Chairman Mao, China and its people have everything. As Mao said: "Without a people's army the people have nothing."

The author is a retired lieutenant general and former chief of staff, Bangladesh Army.