China marks 86th anniversary of People’s Liberation Army

China will continue to maintain unshakable commitment to global peace and development to build a harmonious world with enduring cooperation and common prosperity, China’s military attaché in Nigeria Senior Colonel Kang Hongli has said.Hosting senior officers of the Nigerian armed forces and government, defence attachés from other countries and the diplomatic corps at a reception […]

China will continue to maintain unshakable commitment to global peace and development to build a harmonious world with enduring cooperation and common prosperity, China’s military attaché in Nigeria Senior Colonel Kang Hongli has said.
Hosting senior officers of the Nigerian armed forces and government, defence attachés from other countries and the diplomatic corps at a reception to mark the 86th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Wednesday night in Abuja, Senior Colonel Kang said the Chinese people’s army while maintaining the path of peace, continues to steadily upgrade its capacity and capability in line with requirements of performing its tasks and missions and still play key role in supporting national defence and foreign policies.
“Chinese people are peace lovers and would like to make friends around the world. The PLA is our country’s friendly messenger. We have established friendship contact with 150 countries.
“Guided by our national policy of reform and opening up to the outside world,  cooperation between PLA and the African continent covers strategic partnership, global security, training, peacekeeping, humanitarian disaster relief and defence industry”, he said.
He noted that as an active participant in UN-led peace support operations, the Chinese people’s army collaborates with other peacekeepers including Nigerians to safeguard world peace and regional security.
“Most of PLA peacekeepers are deployed in Africa. To support UN peace efforts in West Africa, we’ve dispatched thousands of officers and soldiers to UN missions in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote D’ivoire in the past 10 years. 400 PLA soldiers are going to join the UN mission in Mali next month and a 140-strong Chinese police will be deployed to UN mission in Liberia. So far, China is the biggest troop contributor among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council”, he said.
Kang expressed delight with the friendship exchange and cooperation between the PLA and the Nigerian armed forces with prospects of enhanced cooperation buoyed by President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent China trip which featured meetings between Nigeria’s defence ministry officials and China’s Minister of National Defence General Chang Wanquan in Beijing.
According to him, the construction of Nigerian Navy’s offshore patrol vessels is going on well in China and the first ship will be delivered next year.
“We believe that these fruits of collaboration could effectively help the Nigerian military to strengthen its capacity and capability in safeguarding peace and maintaining stability in Nigeria and the region. So, we are expecting more cooperation in future through the efforts of both sides”, he added.
Top military sources told Daily Trust at the reception that it is a deeply ingrained concept in China that the PLA is built around service to the people, and wherever disaster occurs, the Chinese army is there to help ensure people’s safety, a concept that has its roots in the actions of PLA soldiers who always play a leading role in rescue work, guarding lives and property.
But some analysts say that Chinese soldiers are always involved in such duties because China is prone to natural disasters, while others say they perform such duties because the Chinese military has little real combat experience, so they go to disaster-stricken areas to accumulate similar experience. However, according to the China armed forces, to some extent, all these ideas make sense, but unfortunately overlook the most fundamental reason, the nature and tenet of the PLA which is to serve the people.  
 Firmly adhering to the principle of service, peace and self defence, the Chinese armed forces make service and safeguard of peace as their goals, try to build themselves into more open and modernised forces, and are now integrating themselves into the international community through wider channels, military sources said.