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Military chiefs pressing ahead with open minds
By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-23 07:48
As the sun continues to rise on China's military capabilities, the country's commanders are dedicated to shedding more light on its inner workings. But few would have expected its unprecedented moves into public relations this year. One year after the People's Liberation Army (PLA) appointed its first ever spokesman, it will take another major step towards greater transparency with the launching of a Ministry of National Defense website on August 1. The initiative will also mark the army's 82nd anniversary, and it is the second significant move to boost public relations announced by defense officials in a matter of months. In March, 51 top-class officers graduated from a training camp for information officers. They were selected from the PLA's 2.3 million servicemen and women and have now been charged with the task of relaying the transparency of China's armed forces to the rest of the world. Senior Colonel Hu Changming, 49, became the army's first ever spokesperson when he liaised with the media on the extensive relief work carried out in the wake of the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province last year. He led a panel of lecturers for the unique military training, sharing his experiences in handling information and dealing with the media. For his students, however, all colonels and lieutenants with college educations, the job ahead may prove far more complex. During a two-week boot camp in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, they endured a series of mock press conferences, complete with reporters and challenging questions on protocol and State security, as well as weeks of intensive media management training with experts in military affairs and communications. All the trainees are now back with their units, which are spread across the army, navy, air force and the special nuclear division, where they will set about training support teams to help them make a difference to how the world views China's military and "put an end to misreporting" by the foreign media and outside observers.
"Nothing we are doing is covert," said newly trained Lieutenant Tian Liyang, 25, an officer based in the Guangzhou military area headquarters. "We do not keep our identities secret and everything is in the open." Tian, who enlisted in 2001, refused to define himself as a spokesman. He added: "We may staff the press offices, but we are only the torchbearers. There is a lot more work going on." The model for the PLA's defense information service is similar to that employed by the United States Armed Forces but it will take "another Long March" before China's military communications network is up to scratch, officers told China Daily. A report compiled by a State media organization for defense chiefs in 2006 showed almost half of 2,600 articles collected from major overseas media sources that year portrayed China's military as a "threat" and remarked on the PLA's "lack of transparency". Through the study, the government also learned that a mention of the military featured in almost 20 percent of the headlines with reports about the country, while the nation took a 14-percent share of the coverage of world military affairs. "Mao Zedong gave the same importance to posters and leaflets as guns during wartime. Now, public communications of the army with the outside world is crucial," said Senior Colonel Gu Li, dean of the journalism department of the Nanjing Political Academy, a military institution where the training for the 51 officers was held. "We know the public image of the PLA now depends on the major online news portals. But, honestly, we did not expect the training session to become an international headline." Researchers believe the army began its public relations work in 1937 when former leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) held his first interview with a foreign journalist, US writer Edgar Snow, in Yan'an, Shaanxi province. Snow shortly after started work on his influential book Red Star Over China. Albeit amazing in 1937, that level of highly restricted media access is far from the standards of today. "For today's public relations, there should be a modern model offering diverse methods," said Dr Jin Miao, author of A Study on Public Affairs of United States Armed Forces, who was also a lecturer for the Nanjing training in March. Lieutenant Tian is a college graduate and worked for military newspapers before taking his post. His background is a typical one among the new PLA press team, as well as the army's officers on a whole. His classmate Major Zhang Liwen, a 35-year-old with the PLA's general armament department, is among its most highly educated rising stars. He has a postgraduate degree in Chinese literature from the Renmin University of China in Beijing and has also worked for a military newspaper. Officers like Zhang have been posted at headquarters of various divisions for years, but he said his daily routine rarely stretched beyond "the basics", such as gathering information for military newspapers, reporting responses to superiors and occasionally answering media inquiries. "Our work is nothing like what people think of as a 'press officer'," said Zhang. "Our jobs are mainly mission-oriented. There are special arrangements from the higher levels only in the wake of major events or emergency missions." He said China's armed forces were short on full-time information officers, compared to the US, and explained only two people in his division were responsible for public relations - he and his superior. "There must be a support team behind an effective defense information network, and each military division or military area should establish an information office as a window of public relations," added Meng Jian, deputy dean of the school of journalism at Shanghai-based Fudan University, who was one of the experts helping to train the PLA's new PR team. The term "Information Office of the Ministry of National Defense" appeared for the first time in January last year, when it announced a forthcoming visit by Admiral Timothy Keating, the US Navy's Pacific commander. The following month it released details on the military's relief work following a severe storm in south China. Experts tipped the development as a springboard for a major defense information network like the one employed in the US, where "the PR ability is equal to its combat capability", explained Dr Jin. Major Colonel Wan Tianbing, 31, with the PLA air force, told China Daily he was already looking for copies of the US Air Force's instructions on public affairs policy and procedure to get some ideas.
Li Xiguang, veteran journalist and executive dean of Tsinghua University's school of journalism and communication in Beijing, has been a vocal advocate of press officers for China's cabinet and ministries. He said: "China is already in an era that demands greater transparency. I have suggested many times to the military they study the models of US and enhance exchanges with them in this field. They must groom a team of highly professional public relations officers." To be able to learn, a student's mind must be open. And the hardest part of the public relations reform could be altering the mindset of those originally behind the Chinese military's overly guarded thinking. "Nowadays, even a small bit of military news about the army in Guangzhou can become a global headline the next day," said Lieutenant Tian, who has called for an end to the traditional mindset. "There is no easy way for the PLA press officers to separate what is fit for domestic readers from military-specialized readers." After passing the media boot camp, Ma Lan, 36, said she had been shocked by some of the questions she was asked in the mock press conferences. "I never imagined I'd be asked at a press conference about my salary being raised as part of the growing defense budget until I actually was," said Ma, who works at the National Defense University, the PLA's top academy. "But these questions are closer to the reality. This is what the outside world wants to know." Professor Meng said: "This is just the beginning. There are young lieutenants now, as well as experienced colonels, who are aware more openness is needed for the army's modernizing." Military officers and scholars suggested there were plans to increase the number of spokesmen and women in units across the nation. But the Ministry of National Defense said it had no immediate plans to do so. In the meantime, Lieutenant Tian and his 50 colleagues are eager to start changing the face of the PLA. "We need more transparency and we need to hone the skills to make it happen," he added.
 (China Daily 07/23/2009 page7) |
