More transparency will benefit the PLA

The government recently announced that it will release information about the country's military budget each year, including how the funds are used. It will also release information about seven conventional weapons. The move reflects China's sincere desire to make its military more transparent and also indicates that the effort to do so is picking up speed.

Against a background of an increasingly multi-polar world and competing strategic interests, mutual trust between countries, particularly between their military forces, is of vital importance to world peace and stability.

For the Chinese military in particular, transparency will help foster an image of trustworthiness before the international community. Transparency is also a kind of "smiling warning" to those who play at power politics, this author believes.