College of Defense Studies launches website

The Chinese military is continuing to seek more openness and communication with the world through the Internet.

Following the websites of the Defense Ministry and China Military Online, the website of College of Defense Studies (www.cdsndu.org) went online on Sept 14.

The first website of Chinese military academies, under the National Defense University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, mainly introduces the development of the college and the PLA in five languages — Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The contents of the five versions are similar, including thousands of pictures and programs like "Chinese defense", "Chinese military culture", "PLA in action" and curriculum schedules, but the foreign versions also takes international viewers' culture and reading habits into consideration, said Wang Ximing, political commissar of the college.

Three years and 2 million yuan ($317,000) have been spent in building the website as a bridge for international military communication, said Wang, adding it currently can handle 50,000 page viewers at once.

The website of Defense Ministry received 130 million page views on the second day after being launched in August 2009. More military websites are widely expected as the result of the PLA's confidence and willingness to open up to the world, analysts said.

In 1969, the college was formerly established to provide trainings to foreign senior officials. It is estimated that more than 500 senior officers from over 100 countries study there every year, and around 4,000 have graduated so far.

A program called "China in the eyes of foreign officers" in the website is created exclusively for foreign students to demonstrate their experience in and feelings about China.

SM Kamrul Hogue, a naval captain from Bangladesh, said he was excited to see the "landmark" launch of the website and expected it to facilitate his studies and communication with other students.

"I am waiting for the launch, and maybe in my room, the first thing I will do is to visit the website and to see actually what I expect and what exists," he said.