Article Posted on : - Feb 02, 2015

BEIJING (AFP): China's military training this year will focus on "improving fighting capacity" to win "local wars" in adverse and high-tech conditions, the defence ministry has said, with Beijing embroiled in several territorial disputes.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been tasked with improving its ability to "win battles" by President Xi Jinping, its commander-in-chief, who has also pushed a high-profile campaign to root our corruption in the world's biggest fighting force.

"The PLA will firmly uphold the criteria of improving fighting capacity," defence ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Yang Yujun told reporters when asked about the military's exercise plans this year.

The PLA would also "take part in more joint exercise training and competition with foreign militaries so as to improve the capability of winning local wars", he said at a regular briefing.

Areas where the PLA will beef up training include in "a complex electro-magnetic environment in special terrains and during extreme weather conditions", he added, citing a recent directive on training for 2015. He did not give specific examples.

Yang did not elaborate on the meaning of "local wars" but China has been involved in occasionally tense confrontations with Japan and the Philippines over maritime disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea respectively, amid fears that the disputes could result in armed clashes.