China navy to carry out Pacific exercises

China is to conduct "routine" naval exercises in the Pacific ocean (AFP/Illustration, Ted Aljibe)

Thursday, November 24, 2011
AFP

BEIJING — China has said it will conduct "routine" naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, in the week after a major diplomatic campaign by US President Barack Obama to assert the United States as a Pacific power.

The defence ministry said the exercises, to be held later this month, did not target any particular country, but the announcement comes against a background of growing tensions over maritime disputes in the Asia-Pacific region.

Obama, who has dubbed himself America's first Pacific president, said last week the United States would deploy up to 2,500 Marines to Australia and tighten air force cooperation, a move seen as a response to China's growing regional might.

60 Cambodian soldiers with scholarships leave for China for training

August 31, 2007

About 60 soldiers from different departments of the Ministry of National Defense of Cambodia left for China on Friday to get military training courses, an official said.

"We have received scholarships from the Chinese government to study in military sections," Meng Hay, an official in the information and propaganda department of the Ministry of National Defense, told Xinhua at the Phnom Penh International Airport where the soldier students had gathered in early morning before setting off to China.

"When we arrive in China, we will go to study at different schools in different provinces," he said, adding that each soldier will learn a professional skill, such as anti-terrorism, infantry, computer, Chinese language, navy, airplane repairing, tank and artillery.

"I am very happy to have the opportunity to learn in China because I can upgrade my knowledge about infantry," Meng Hay said.

He added that he got high scores at the Royal Military Academy of Cambodia in Phnom Penh and upgraded his English language skills nearly a year before he passed the test to get the scholarship.

Source: Xinhua