China's communist leaders yesterday marked the 78th anniversary of their military's founding by praising its role in defeating Japanese forces in World War II.
The anniversary comes at a time of strained relations with Tokyo over ownership of oil and gas reserves in disputed seas and Japan's campaign for a permanent UN Security Council seat.
"It's in their arduous struggle against Japanese invaders that the people's army grows," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) as saying during a tour of war sites.
The 2.5 million-member People's Liberation Army was founded in 1927 as a guerrilla force and fought Japanese wartime invaders before winning a civil war that brought the communists to power in 1949.
"We won the war against Japanese aggression 60 years ago. But the great national spirit in the war will always be a great force to encourage people to move on," Hu was quoted as saying.
Hu, who also is chairman of the Communist Party commission that controls the military, called for the Chinese public to "inherit their fine traditions and carry forward the national spirit."
State television showed Hu visiting elderly World War II veterans.
At a reception on Sunday, Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan (
State media also praised the role of soldiers in helping survivors of flooding and in fighting forest fires.
Some 24,000 soldiers and officers as well as 120,000 members of civilian militias have helped some 500,000 people endangered by flooding, fires and other disasters this year, the China Daily said.
"Quick response is the basic principle observed by the PLA in disaster relief work," Major General Chang Shengrong, an official of the military's political department, was quoted as saying.
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