Chinese PLA treats Russian army as elder brothers
2013-08-19 — Russian and Chinese servicemen completed the joint antiterror exercise Peace Mission-2013 in Chelyabinsk Region that run through August 15. Lt-Gen Viktor Sevostyanov, commander of the Russian Air Force and Air Defence Force Second Command, told ITAR-TASS news agency how the experience gained during the drill will be taken into consideration by the Russian military’s combat training system.
Itar-Tass: Did the Russian servicemen gain a positive experience from the exercise?
Sevostyanov: The Chinese servicemen were cheering each other on, working as a team and generally being quite good at what they were doing.
Russian General gives a hug to his Chinese counterpart
The Chinese counterparts’ example motivated the Russian servicemen to teamwork. They made the effort to act as a single big and friendly family.
This means that there certainly was a positive experience, and that the formula I have invented actually works, including during such major drills.
Itar-Tass: Do you believe this esprit de corps will last, and will be adopted elsewhere in the Russian Army?
Sevostyanov: We will certainly do our best to use the morale demonstrated during the exercise as the foundation for our future personnel training efforts.
The very fact that Peace Mission 2013 was held in Russia’s Central Military District is a great achievement in and of itself.
The Chinese army aviation aircraft flew more than 4,000 km to attend the drill. We learnt to understand and work together with our Chinese colleagues.
I had attended several previous Peace Mission exercises, including the one held in China in 2009, so I have something to go on when appraising this latest drill.
According to my observations, the Chinese servicemen hold us in great respect and treat us as elder brothers. You can tell from the way they speak to us.
They have adopted a lot from the Soviet Army traditions, including with regard to personnel training. This was evident during the practical phase of Peace Mission 2013. The Chinese followed Soviet field manuals to the letter.
As for aviation, the Russian and Chinese pilots managed to attain complete synergy, even though the drill turned into a competition of sorts for them.
I believe that the Russian pilots’ performance was totally satisfactory; they had managed to eliminate the shortcomings revealed during the preparatory sorties.
Itar-Tass: How did you deal with the language barrier?
Sevostyanov: It is true that finding a common language with the PLA servicemen was the hardest part of our preparations for the drill and the exercise itself.
However, despite the obvious differences between the two languages, there exist several Chinese hieroglyphs and Russian words which are understandable to the respective counterpart, including to pilots. For example, the Russian and Chinese terms for “take off” are understood by the other country’s pilots.
They know the sequence of actions that has to follow this short order. The word “take off” may mean nothing to you but to servicemen, it means the aircraft’s acceleration from the beginning of the take-off run to the climbout.
Therefore, when the interpreter said that we were now discussing the take-off procedure, the servicemen understood what was going on.
Of course, in personal communication we sometimes had to exercise patience when trying to understand our Chinese colleagues. For example, when asked what time it is they will reply in a good two dozen words.
This is because they have to convey to you that 2000 hours, for example, is well into the afternoon but not entirely nighttime yet. There is no single term in Chinese that would describe 2000 hours.
Another problem is that Chinese underuse gesticulation. I experienced this personally when travelling with a Chinese driver and no interpreter. I attempted gestures to tell the driver to stop the vehicle but nothing happened.
Itar-Tass: What other difficulties did you encounter during the drill?
Sevostyanov: The two armies’ different units had just one hour to demonstrate their combat potential. In real life, an antiterror operation of this kind would last for several days.
Our hardest task was to coordinate the actions of the joint force, align the schedule of strikes, and fit the plan for joint actions into 60 minutes. We could not have accomplished this objective without extensive preparations.
Itar-Tass: How effective did the antiterror operation prove?
Sevostyanov: It is of great importance to the Chinese military that the drill was conducted jointly with the Russian Armed Forces. China is willing and ready to learn from us.
The PLA looks up to us, not to NATO armies. China would not stage a similar exercise with NATO troops. This friendship is beneficial to our army, since we have an extensive border with China.
We have a lot in common, despite the linguistic and cultural differences. We have established a good dialogue; we have common goals and objectives.
In my opinion, joint counteraction to terrorisms represents a very promising aspect of cooperation between the Russian and Chinese armed forces; this is something we are going to develop in future.
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