Story & photo by Recto Mercene
THE People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China hosted—for the first time in the country—a celebration of its anniversary, which had in attendance military representatives of the Philippines and the US.
Guests included Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, China’s Military Attaché Liqun Liu and a delegation from the US military, as well.THE People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China hosted—for the first time in the country—a celebration of its anniversary, which had in attendance military representatives of the Philippines and the US.
A video presentation showed the PLA in 1924 as a poorly-equipped military, but today has grown as a world power to be reckoned with.
Outside the entrance to the ballroom where the festivities were held, huge photographs featured the PLA’s achievements, such as advance jet fighters, ships and submarines.
The PLA also touted its military forces escorting hundreds of Chinese ships at the height of the piracy epidemic off the Somalia coast, when poor residents of the African nation had to resort to hijacking container ships loaded with millions of dollars worth of merchandise.
The pirates kidnapped the ship’s captain and his crew in exchange for ransom.
The PLA, the largest-standing army in the world, has active personnel of 2.3 million and a reserve of 2.3 million more. It is armed with the latest and most sophisticated equipment in land, air and sea.
Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua said China’s military “is for peaceful [and] defense purposes only”.
Zhao said his country has the largest peace-keeping contingent in the world.
To date, the Chinese military has assigned peacekeepers of more than 35,000 persons, participated in 24 United Nations peace-keeping missions, and is reputed as “a key factor and force of peace-keeping missions” by the international community, according to Wikipedia.
At the sidelines of the event, Zhao was asked about the prospect of joint exercises with the Philippine military.
“Regarding military exercises, we are working on it. It might be later, because [the Philippines has] a mutual defense treaty with the US. In this regard, we cannot conduct [such].”
“But if Philippine troops would like to conduct military training exercises in China, they are most welcome,” he added.
According to the envoy, China supports the Philippines’s fight against terrorism and they have already delivered some equipment.
“Of course, terrorism is a common enemy facing both the Philippines and China, and we would like to have intelligence-sharing and joint training.”
Lorenzana, on the other hand, does not see any problem of a joint-military exercise with China.
When asked about the prospects with their Chinese counterparts, Lorenzana said: “[It is big], because we have a military-to-military agreement on exchange of students first.”
“Later on, as we go along, we can develop the mechanism that we can exercise there, and then [they can do the same here].”
This reporter queried, “Will it not violate our standing relations with the US? With our mutual defense treaty?”
“ [I don’t think so],” the defense secretary replied. “Remember that the US and the Chinese have their joint-military exercises also just lately.”
Asked on how he assesses the PLA as of late, Lorenza said: “I noticed from 1924 up to now the development of the PLA has been going steadily [upward]. And from a very poorly equipped army [composed mostly of] guerillas, now they are a very modern army, so we admire the progress to what it [has achieved] now.”
This reporter followed-up: “Do you think the PLA can help the Philippines to modernize?”
“Of course, because they started also from nothing, but through [their] desire to produce their own equipment, they just made do with what they had, and now pile up their achievements with all the modern equipment. So that is what we are going to do also—to start from the basics—and maybe we can ask China and others to help us to bring our defense industry to the level that can protect us.”
About military hardware the Philippine military could request from China, Lorenzana said: “Well, in the future, maybe we can acquire bigger equipment like airplanes, or drones maybe, or ships or fast boats. That maybe good for our defense, just for the protection of our areas.”