The petty officer reform program has greatly changed the composition of the navy. The proportion of petty officers has increased from 25 percent, before the reforms, to 60 percent at present. The chief navy services of surface vessels, submarines, and air force now engage up to 80 percent of personnel. Petty officers currently occupy over 5,900 fighting positions in 21 different areas of responsibility, becoming the new force of the navy’s fighting contingency.
With complicated weaponry and a wide range of high technology, the training of high quality personnel was a lengthily process. The petty officer reform program has gone a long way in addressing these problems, slowing the rate of soldiers from departing the armed forces due to lack of mental stimulation and insufficient combat experience.
A large number of skillful petty officers, adept in their professions, now operate and manage a wide variety of new equipment, which radically reduces the amount of time it takes to reach combat readiness, ensuring the navy accomplishes its goal of installing, training, and achieving battle capability within the year.
The navy always considers improving the quality of all petty officers an essential element in achieving optimum fighting capability. The petty officer training system has been developed in accordance with the requirements pertaining to weaponry development, the constant improvement of petty officers training, and petty officers schools and training institutions. The program consists of preliminarily petty officer training, normal principle qualification training, and supplementary follow-up training.
In addition, the navy now offers junior college education, sending the trainees abroad to raise the level of expertise. During the last three years, over 50,000 petty officers have undergone various forms of training, and over 5,000 have achieved academic qualifications from junior colleges or higher. Many petty officers are proving courageous in scientific exploration and technological training, listing 536 technically innovative achievements and winning 11 armed forces prizes.
High quality petty officers such as those who study abroad, and those who have joined the navy from other armed forces have produced academic works, with some becoming members of the evaluation committee for national scientific findings, and others giving lessons in universities. Many “army experts,” “army professors,” “oceanic cartographers,” “missile experts,” and “crack gunners” have been at the active forefront of military training. Some 10,000 of the navy’s petty officers have been cited as “pacesetters.” Over 5,000 have won class 3 merit citations, and more than 300 exceptional petty officers have been promoted to the rank of chief petty officer for outstanding achievements.
(china.org.cn by Li Xiao, October 2, 2002)
