Comment: Soldiers' weight is life-and-death issue

The General Staff Headquarters (GSH), the General Political Department (GPD), the General Logistics Department (GLD) and the General Armaments Department (GAD) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) jointly issued the "Outline of Reform and Development of Military Physical Training (2015-2020)", setting guiding ideology, development objectives, major tasks and related policies for the promotion of military physical training. The Outline proposes to implement the control of soldiers' weight and mandatory weight standard system. Meanwhile, the weight should be linked to promotion.

With the continuous improvement of living standards, obesity is becoming a worldwide problem affecting human health. It also spreads to the military. Soldiers around the world are facing different degrees of obesity.

But for soldiers, obesity is much more than the issue of "face". It is a "life-and-death" issue of personal skills and tactical ability on the battlefield. Therefore, foreign militaries, especially some powerful militaries, have given high priority to soldiers' weight.

U.S. "Regulations on Commissioned Officer Promotions" clearly states that military physical fitness standards are related to promotions. Those who fail three consecutive times in physical examination will be required to retrieve from the service.

Russia's Defense Ministry also issued the "Regulations on Physical Training of the Russian Federation Armed Forces" in 2009, providing detailed regulations on the construction of physical training conditions, equipment standards and reward and punishment measures. Russia's military rewards those who have reached the highest level of physical training standards annually and provides honorary uniform tokens for them.

While I was studying at the Bundeswehr, I experienced the emphasis on physical exercise of Bundeswehr. Every day, the offices and grass-roots companies of the force will conduct physical exercise. Every week, there is a half-day class time for athletic competition covering handball, hockey, volleyball, football and so on. In addition, all staff should participate in one cross-country mountain march every month.

At that time, the German media also seriously discussed the phenomenon of the increase in the weight of German soldiers in International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan as a result of busy tasks and lack of physical training time. There is a concept in Western militaries, namely, technical soldiers must also qualify as infantries once they are out of technical equipment. Therefore, excellent physical condition is fundamental.

For our military, it is the high time to focus on military sports centering on physical conditions. Due to a variety of reasons, we have a "short board" in this regard for a long time.

First, we have not paid enough attention to military sports at the thought level. The long peaceful environment fostered a "pampered" inertia. Some people even think that physical conditions are useless in the information war.

Secondly, there are gaps in the construction of related conditions. Prior to the release of this Outline, the only regulatory document on physical training is the "Military Fitness Standards". In this regard, the legal system is imperfect and the system's constraining force is not strong.

Meanwhile, venues, facilities and equipment conditions are also lagging behind and cannot meet the needs of close-to-combat physical training. More importantly, the lack of scientific mechanism of military physical training and group training team has greatly restricted the effect of military physical training.

The Outline issued at this time precisely aims at these key issues. The Outline clearly proposes major tasks including the building of a sound management system, the improvement of the training system, the reform on the training contents, the improvement of training methods and training conditions as well as the strengthening of the construction of the team. Specifically, the Outline proposes the implementation of mandatory military weight standards, the implementation of military physical training in relation to personnel management and the establishment of military physical training honor system.