Source: english.chinamil.com.cn

07-30-2007 17:29

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Early on Oct. 25, 1949, three regiments of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) landed on the Jinmen of Taiwan Island, prepared to deal a fatal blow to the fleeing Nationalists.

Two days later, with the landing vessels stranded above the tide mark, their ammunition and provisions exhausted, the PLA troops were wiped out.

The battle provided a much more needed morale boost to the Nationalists, accustomed to defeats by the PLA on the mainland, and laid the foundation for the current situation across the Taiwan Strait.

The PLA chiefs, examining how they had snatched defeat from the jaws of final victory, looked at the broken supply lines and began a long overhaul of logistics support.

"The battle China faces in the future will involve all three services. Joint operations make joint logistics support imperative," said Liao Xilong, a member of the PLA Central Military Commission and the chief of the General Department of Logistics.

The PLA gained its first joint combat experience when it captured Yijiangshan Island in 1955 with the successful deployment of more than 10,000 troops, 188 vessels and 184 aircraft.

The PLA experimented sporadically with joint logistics in the following decades, learning from the 1990 Gulf War and the 1998 NATO military campaign in Kosovo.

The real milestone, however, came this April when the Central Military Commission officially approved the reforms by Jinan Military Region in eastern Shandong Province in integrating logistics for all the services.

The region's 16 logistics supports units, including medical services, materials and fuel supply, transportation and engineering construction, were restructured to improve efficiency and combat effectiveness.

The Army, Navy and Air Forces had traditionally maintained their own logistics support without collaboration. The new Theater Joint Logistics Department (TJLD) was established to break the divide between the services and take full responsibility for all logistics supports within the region.

One of the TJLD's first missions was to create an electronic supply system that allows logistics officers to locate and identify -- at the click of a mouse -- the stocks and demands of all military units.

The TJLD can instantly post requisitions at the logistics support unit most conveniently stationed to the unit with the demand.

In the past, an air force unit might have to travel hundreds of miles to its designated warehouse even though a navy warehouse might be just around the corner.

Wan Weifeng, deputy chief of staff of the TJLD, said one beneficiary of the reform was a submarine unit that used to spend at least five days on road to fetch uniforms from a depot 1,800 kilometers away. Their wait has been reduced to a maximum of two hours.

The reform started by the Jinan Military Region in July 2003 has increased efficiency to the extent that the PLA was supplying both Russian and Chinese troops during the first Sino-Russian joint military exercise, "Peace Mission 2005", Wan said, without revealing specifics.

Lang Jianzhao, deputy chief of the TJLD, said rank-and-file personnel were enjoying better medical services, and finances were more transparent.

"Before the reform, we were like the only son of the air force, under no pressure at all. They had to rely on us whether we were good or not. Now we are encouraged to compete in the market and raise profits through better services," said Zhou Keliang, deputy chief of the No. 456 hospital.

Like a dozen other hospitals brought under TJLD control, the No. 456 hospital competes against both civilian and military rivals. By signing up skilled civilian nurses and doctors and finding a niche market in maternity and child hygiene, the hospital collected 48.7 million yuan (6.49 million U.S. dollars) in revenues last year, nearly double the sum of 2002, the year before the reform.

As the medical allowance for enlisted personnel never exceeds 1,000 yuan per person, China's military hospitals have long been subsidizing the medical costs of service personnel. If a hospital has a poor balance sheet, it will have to treat the soldiers on the cheap and confine its expenditure within the allowance.

"With greater profits, we can afford to prescribe better and more expensive medicines to military patients and upgrade medical facilities," Zhou said. Last year, the hospital subsidized the treatment of enlisted personnel by 12 million yuan (1.6 million U.S. dollars), nearly eight times more than the 2002 level.

The TJLD has also persuaded commercial banks to sign emergency fund supply agreements with all the region's units above division and brigade level.

The TJLD also serves as chief accountant of the region, responsible for all budgeted funding from the General Department of Logistics to grassroots units through a unified accounting system.

The PLA leadership has yet to announce if it extend the practice across the armed forces, but Lang Jianzhao argues it is a necessity.

"It has taken 58 years and numerous experiments to get here. If we stick to the reform of joint logistics support, we can really modernize the armed forces and maintain our combat readiness in the information era," he said.

 

Editor:Chen Ge