Senior PLA officers vow to embrace Deng's legacy

Senior officers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have called for embracing late leader Deng Xiaoping's political legacy and building strong armed forces.

A total of 18 officers delivered speeches at a seminar on Tuesday to mark the 110th anniversary of Deng's birth. The speeches were published in Friday's edition of the PLA Daily.

The officers, mostly political officers in the PLA, serve in the General Department of logistics, armament, air force, navy, the second artillery force, and other military units.

Deng was one of the key leaders in the army of the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the revolutionary years. After the founding of the People's Republic, he held the post of chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Liu Yazhou, political commissar of the National Defense University, said at the seminar that Deng's forward-looking strategic thinking helped drive the country to prosperity.

Liu vowed to learn from Deng's political wisdom to help properly implement the current reform agenda and praised Deng's historic role in facing challenges and risks.

Yang Cunshe, deputy chief of the political department of the General Staff Headquarters, quoted Deng as saying that the army's goal is to strengthen its combat effectiveness.

Yang called for continued implementation of this goal and strengthened combat effectiveness to safeguard national security.

Xue Baoguo, political commissar of the Xi'an Politics Institute of the PLA, urged PLA political officers to learn from Deng's remark that the Party must lead the army. Xue also urged officers to follow Chinese President Xi Jinping's call to strengthen the Party's "absolute leadership" over the army and vowed to cultivate the army's fighting spirit.