Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has called for a crackdown on graft and extravagance in the military, kicking off a campaign to bring discipline to the world’s largest army, state press said yesterday.
In a recent circular he ordered the end to “prominent problems” in the military and reiterated the need to maintain a clean and honest defense force, the People’s Liberation Army Daily reported.
“Faced with a severe and complex ideological struggle, senior and mid-level officers must maintain staunch ideological conviction and resolutely uphold political steadfastness,” the paper quoted the order as saying.
Military officers must do more to follow orders, obey the law, end lax work habits and maintain Chinese Communist Party discipline, it said.
The circular was aimed at ending “luxury and hedonism” in the 2.3 million-strong military, the China Daily said.
“The public impression is that some army officers have lavish lifestyles,” said Mao Shoulong (毛壽龍), a researcher at People’s University in Beijing. “Army corruption is mainly caused by a relatively weak prevention network.”
Meanwhile, the head of China’s state television network has been replaced, state media reported, three months after a huge blaze gutted part of the broadcaster’s new Beijing headquarters, killing one firefighter.
Zhao Huayong (趙化勇), 60, has stepped down as the head of China Central Television, or CCTV, as he has reached retirement age, Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday.
His departure comes three months after an illegal fireworks display — ordered by CCTV officials — sparked a massive blaze at CCTV’s new headquarters complex, gutting a 30-story building that was to house a luxury hotel.
The massive fire was a huge embarrassment to the government, as CCTV is one of the ruling Communist Party’s main propaganda arms.
One firefighter was killed while trying to put out the inferno in the nearly-completed tower, located right next to the compound’s futuristic main structure designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.
Caijing magazine reported that Zhao had planned to retire only after the state broadcaster moved into the new headquarters in October.
The country’s work safety authorities said last month that the State Council, or Cabinet, had ordered investigators to carry out “in-depth probes” into the accident and would “punish related people that are responsible,” it said.
Zhao has been replaced by Jiao Li (焦利), 54, a vice director of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department, Caijing reported.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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