Chinese troops warned on espionage

BEIJING - Chinese military authorities have ordered servicemen to be on guard against infiltration and espionage by "hostile forces".

The People's Liberation Army Daily (PLA Daily) on Wednesday carried the full text of a guideline issued by the Central Military Commission (CMC) stressing the need to run political background checks on officers and soldiers to "prevent penetration, sabotage by hostile forces or erosion by corrupt ideas and cultures."

The guideline encouraged other measures to improve management of servicemen, including better psychological services.

Psychological evaluation and counseling should be conducted regularly, and officers and soldiers suffering severe psychological problems need to get timely treatment, it said.

The CMC also ordered tighter management over mobile phones and the Internet, forbidding personnel from blogging, online chatting or job hunting in an official capacity.

The guideline banned officers from imposing corporal punishments on soldiers, encroaching on soldiers' interests and taking bribes from them.

It identified training, political and ideological education, as well as building grassroots Communist Party organizations as other measures to improve the army. Officers and soldiers were ordered to sharpen risk awareness, and to stay prepared for combat at any time.

To help make way for this workload, the guideline instructed governing bodies to organize fewer and briefer meetings, and to simplify inspections of officers.

Higher-ranking institutions should not "whimsically" borrow personnel or demand written reports from grassroots units, according to the guideline, which took effect on Sunday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also chairman of the CMC, called for the building of a stronger army when addressing troops in southwest China on Jan 22.