Deepening logistics reform. The PLA persists in promoting reforms in joint logistics. In April 2007 the Jinan Theater formally adopted the joint logistics system based on the integration of tri-service logistical support. To speed up the outsourcing process, the PLA outsources the commercial and housing services of combat units stationed in large- and medium-sized cities, general-purpose materials storage, capital construction, logistical equipment production and logistical technical services. To enhance budgeting reforms, it promotes the creation of databases for budget items, strengthens the investment assessment and evaluation of major projects, summarizes and popularizes such practices as the integration of assets management with budget management and the control of expenses concerning administrative consumables, and gradually adopts the practice of using work-related expenditure cards for payment and account settlement. It enlarges the scope of centralized procurement, increases the proportion of procurement through bidding, and extends centralized procurement to non-combat units.

Upgrading logistical support. The PLA has substantially increased funding for education and training, political work, health care, water and electricity supplies, heating, barracks maintenance, etc. It has increased allowances for aviators, sailors and astronauts. It has increased post allowances for officers in grass-roots units and duty allowances for enlisted men. It has raised servicemen's injury and death insurance and board expenses. It has set standards for the subsidies and fees for small, scattered, distant units and units directly under the headquarters. In August 2007 all PLA troops began to replace their old uniforms with the 07 series.

Regulating logistics management. To step up standardization, the PLA is redoubling its efforts in the standardized provision of maintenance funds and centrally allocated supplies, regulating the management of construction-related supplies, and creating step by step a system of logistical support standards and regulations covering supply, consumption and management. It strengthens financial management, spends according to standards and within its budget, and carries out construction according to its financial strength. It pays close attention to the safe management of drinking water, food, medical care, medicine, petroleum, oils and lubricants, transportation and dangerous articles. It is improving the mechanism to prevent and control public health hazards; standardizing the management of military vehicles; conducting a special review of housing for active officers at and above the corps level; imposing strict management on military housing and the lease of unoccupied real estate; and improving the system for the employment of civilians. In January 2007 the CMC promulgated the newly revised Audit Regulations of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The PLA has launched an in-depth movement to conserve energy and resources by encouraging conservation-minded supply and consumption. It protects the ecological environment of military areas by initiating a grassland conservation project, a pilot project for preventing and alleviating sand storms affecting coastal military facilities, and efforts to harness pollution by military units stationed in the area known as the Bohai Sea rim.

Boosting Integrated Equipment Support

Meeting the requirements of tri-service integration, joint operations, systems building and systems integration, the PLA is continually improving its weaponry and equipment system and elevating integrated equipment support.

Accelerating the building of a modern weaponry and equipment system with Chinese characteristics. Persisting in self-reliance and independent innovation, the PLA gives priority to developing informationized weapons and equipment that can meet the requirements of integrated joint operations, and carries out prioritized and selective retrofitting and upgrading of existing equipment. It has basically established an army equipment system featuring high mobility and three-dimensional assault, a naval equipment system with integrated sea-air capabilities for offshore defensive operations, an air force equipment system with integrated air-land capabilities for both offensive and defensive operations, a surface-to-surface missile equipment system for the Second Artillery Force comprising both nuclear and conventional missiles with different ranges, and an electronic information equipment system featuring systems integration and joint development.

Raising the level of equipment management and the capability of new equipment maintenance and support. The PLA is intensifying the scientific, institutionalized and regular management of equipment, and has adopted a system of accountability to improve weapon and equipment readiness. Emphasis is laid on cultivating the capability of equipment maintenance and support, the techniques and means of which are being gradually shifted from being applicable to equipment of the first and second generations to being applicable to the second and third generations. Overhaul and emergency support capabilities have been basically developed for the main equipment. The PLA has augmented equipment support forces and formed a preliminary system of such forces, with regular forces as the backbone, reserve forces as the reinforcement, and backup forces as the supplement. Equipment manufacturing units have been ordered to rehearse the mobilization of technical support forces, and approaches to civil-military integrated support have been explored.

Adjusting and reforming the equipment procurement system. In the past two years, the PLA has further expanded the scope of competitive, centralized and integrated procurement. In line with the demand to separate and balance planning, contract fulfillment, contract supervision and contract auditing, the PLA has adjusted and improved the organizational system for equipment procurement, and reformed the system of resident military representatives in factories.

Speeding up Informationization

Actively coping with the challenges presented by the worldwide RMA, the PLA extensively applies information technology, develops and utilizes information resources in various fields of military building, and strives to take a road of military informationization with Chinese characteristics which highlights the leading role of information, pursues composite development, promotes independent innovation and facilitates transformation.

Starting with command automation in the 1970s, the PLA has shifted the focus of informationization from specific areas to trans-area systems integration, and is on the whole at the initial stage of comprehensive development. Currently, aiming at integration, the PLA is persisting in combining breakthroughs in key sectors with comprehensive development, technological innovation with structural reform, and the development and building of new systems with the modification of existing ones to tap their potentials; enhancing systems integration; stepping up efforts to develop and utilize information resources; and gradually developing and improving the capability of fighting based on information systems.

Achievements have been made in the building of military information systems, with the priority being given to command information systems. The integrated military information network came into operation in 2006, resulting in the further improvement of the information infrastructure, basic information support and information security assurance. Progress has been made in the building of command and control systems for integrated joint operations, significantly enhancing the capability of battlefield information support. IT-based training methods have undergone considerable development; surveying and mapping, navigation, weather forecasting, hydrological observation and space environment support systems have been further optimized; a number of information systems for logistical and equipment support have been successfully developed and deployed; and full-scale efforts in building "digital campuses" have begun in PLA educational institutions.

Main battle weapon systems are being gradually informationized. The focus is to increase the capability of the main battle weapon systems in the areas of rapid detection, target location, friend-or-foe identification and precision strikes. Some tanks, artillery pieces, ships and aircraft in active service have been informationized, new types of highly informationized combat platforms have been successfully developed, and the proportion and number of precision-guided munitions are on the rise.

The conditions for informationization have been improved. A leadership, management and consultation system for informationization has been basically set up, and the centralized and unified leadership for informationization has been strengthened. Theoretical explorations and studies of key practical issues related to informationization have been continuously intensified, medium- and long-term plans and guidance for informationization of the military formulated and promulgated, technical standards revised and refined, and institutional education and personnel training catering to the requirements of informationization strengthened.

Stepping up Personnel Training

The PLA is further implementing the strategic project for talented people, improving its training system and laying stress on the training of commanding officers for joint operations and high-level technical experts in an effort to cultivate a large contingent of new-type and high-caliber military personnel.

In April 2008, the CMC issued Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Officers Training Work of the Armed Forces, explicitly requiring the establishment and improvement of the service-long and all-personnel training system, which takes level-by-level training as the backbone and on-the-job training as the supplement, and matches training with assignment. A situation is to be created in which institutional education is linked with training in units, education in military educational institutions is carried on in parallel with education through regular institutions of higher learning, and domestic training is combined with overseas training.