China will transform its military training based on mechanized warfare to that based on informationized warfare, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at a parliament session on Thursday.

"In the coming year, we need to make our army more revolutionary, modern and standardized," reads the report delivered at the Second Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), or the parliament.

China "will effectively transform our military training based on mechanized warfare to military training for warfare under conditions of greater IT application", the report says.

China will continue to enhance the army's ability to respond to multiple security threats and accomplish a diverse array of military tasks.

Wen also said China will modernize weapons, equipment and logistics support across the board this year. "We will improve defense-related research, the weapons and equipment production system," he said.

"It is not possible to win a modern warfare without due IT application," said Qi Sanping, an NPC deputy and president of the Xi'an Politics Institute of People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Qi said it was necessary for China to develop high-tech and new weapons under the condition of greater IT application as far as the country's capacity allows. "We should at least have the technology if we do not produce the weapons."

NPC deputy Zhu Fachen, a logistics chief of the Second Artillery Corps told Xinhua on the sidelines of the parliament session that informationization is the trend of global military development.

China exercises a defense-oriented policy and its national defense expenditure is far less than that of the United States.

The building of computerized armed forces has entered a new era of all-round development, says a white paper on China's national defense in 2008 issued in January.

Starting with command automation in the 1970s, the PLA's information technology has stepped from specific areas to trans-area system integration and is at the initial stage of comprehensive development, says the white paper.

China plans to increase its defense budget by 14.9 percent to 480.686 billion yuan (US$70 billion) in 2009, according to Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the NPC session.

Li said the increased spending is mainly for better treatment of servicemen, and for the purchase of equipment and construction of facilities to enhance the ability of the military force to defend the country in the age of information.

China's defense expenditure accounted for 1.4 percent of it's GDP in 2008. The ratio was 4 percent for the United States, and more than 2 percent for Britain, France and some other countries, Li said.

At the parliament session Thursday, Premier Wen Jiabao said China will this year continue to enhance the army's ability to respond to multiple security threats and accomplish a diverse array of military tasks.

On Dec. 26 last year, China sent two destroyers and one supply ship to escort merchant ships in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia, the first time the country has sent troops far afield to perform military escort missions since 1949.

Speculation arouse that China was building up its military power, changing its defensive policy and aiming to expand its military presence worldwide.

However, Huang Xueping, deputy director-general of the Information Office of the Ministry of National Defense, refuted the speculation, saying that China would never waver from a defense policy that is defensive in nature.

As of February 11, the escort fleet has carried out 19 escort missions for 45 ships.

The Somali mission shows China's efforts to undertake its international obligations as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the determination to preserve regional stability and peace, Huang said.

"We will not interfere with other countries' affairs. But we are willing to carry out similar missions when our own security is threatened," said Qi Sanping.

Zhao Hui, another NPC deputy from the PLA, said the Somali mission was totally different from the overseas military missions by Western countries such as the United States. "We will only take action when our interests are infringed."

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)