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General Zhu Heping says
General says weak foundation in sosphicated machinery is among the obstacles facing the PLA in its efforts to upgrade its home-made fighters
.A weak foundation in building sophisticated machinery and a lack of innovation are major obstacles for the People's Liberation Army in upgrading its latest domestically produced jet fighters, military experts say.
Major General Zhu Heping - vice-president of the Air Force Command Academy and the grandson of the father of the Red Army, Zhu De - talked about the constraints facing the PLA in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
He said one key hindrance was the state of the country's machinery industry, even though the PLA had been upgrading to a more hi-tech force for a decade. Another problem was the lack of innovation in the industry sector.
Zhu said those 10 years, under the rule of former president Hu Jintao and former premier Wen Jiabao, had seen crucial gains made in military modernisation.
"Taking the air force as an example, we managed to take a huge step forward by replacing second-generation jet fighters with third-generation ones as the main force," he said.
Zhu said big strides had been made in developing anti-aircraft weapons and giving information technology a bigger role.
"More importantly, we saw an enormous improvement in the quality of our pilots," he said. "At present you can hardly find an officer who does not hold a bachelor's degree or higher."
More importantly, we saw an enormous improvement in the quality of our pilots. At present you can hardly find an officer who does not hold a bachelor's degree or higherHowever, Zhu said, Chinese industry had not progressed quite so rapidly. "To be honest, we've overlooked the problem of how difficult, complicated and time-consuming it is for us to upgrade the machinery industry in our country," he said
Zhu cited as an example the fact that the air force had to buy foreign engines for home-made fighter jets.
