News
[Jun. 26, 2009]
Self Defense Training
From June 7th to 11th, 13 young officers from the Japanese Self Defense forces and the China's People's Liberation Army came together for an annual interchange program run by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. This was the 9th time that the program has been held, and Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie, who paid a visit to the group halfway through the activities, praised the initiative highly, expressing hopes that it will be extended beyond after its planned 10-year period which ends in 2010.
Viewing a J11 fighter
This year's group started in Peking, visited Xinjiang, Urumuchi, Jinan and Jinigh and finally went to Shanghai.
Visits were made for the first time to the Xinjiang military base and the 19th Air Batallion's headquarters in Jining. At Xinjiang military base, visits were paid to the engineer corps' facility where participants viewed special vehicles and around 40 varieties of equipment, as well as observing a landmine search simulation. At the 19th air batalion's headquarters, the J11 fighter plane, based on the Russian SU-27, was unveiled for the group, and at a Shanghai naval base, they were able to board an 053H2G frigate.
Visiting a 053H2G frigate
In Peking, in Addition to the Defense Minister's visit, the group watched live fire anti-terror exercizes carried out by at the Academy for Special Police. The academy offers a 4-year course to 320 officers of the military police (75 of whom are women), selected out of the 600,000 in China. Following graduation, these elite officers will be employed in anti-terror work and the protection of governmental officials. Following the visit, Japanese participants commented that their image of Chinese society, people and military had completely changed. This year's visit, in which foundation chairman Yohei Sasakawa also participated, brings the total number of participants from Japan to 102.