Designation of China's group army no longer secret to public

Key Words: designation; Chinese army; group army; military area;CCTV; military channel;

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The designation of China's group army is no longer confidential information to the public as of Jan. 15, 2013, reported by CCTV news Tuesday.

"How do snipers practice shooting with great precision in such severe coldness. The reporter has witnessed snipers from the 39th Group Army in the Shenyang military area having military drill under the severely cold condition", CTV military news reported. This is the first time that the designation of a group army was exposed to the public.

Last night, CCTV military channel has announced through Weibo that,The designation of group army is unveiled as of today". According to the information, the designation of PLA group army can be used to the public instead of referred to as "a group army" This act indicates " more open presentation of Chinese army"

The news which unveiled the designation of the group army for the first time was with the headline "Snipers in the 39th Group Army conducts drill" The news also showed the subtitle of "a soldiers with the 39th Group Army" when soldier Liu Shan and An Shifu were interviewed. At the same time, "Gao Wei, the deputy battalion commander of the 39th Group Army" accepted interview.

The news has triggered loads of comments and is widely shared on the Internet. Some said," can now talk about my designation years ago!"; some thought it is "a sign of progress",while some other questioned "Why not continue to keep it as secret".

Others also suggest to popularize the arrangement of the designation to the citizens, as most non-professional citizens would not know what the designation refers to.

Major general Zhu Chenghu, dean of the strategy teaching and research department of the National Defense University, talked about the questions over "the secrecy of Chinese military" when speaking as a guest at the Qiangguo Forum of People's Daily Online. Zhu said,the transparency of military is relative. Every country has secrecies to some extent. Chinese military has become increasingly transparent over the years. He also mentioned that some related issues could be affected by cultural and history reasons, like the designation and it is more important to adjust the conception.

Edited and translated by Li Xiang, People's Daily Online

Read the Chinese version: 我陆军集团军番号可公开, source: Beijing Times, author: Shang Xi

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