PLA newspaper slams 'false' report

Meaningless to compare equipment prices of China and the US: source

China's military newspaper on Monday slammed a report by the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly which claimed that a single set of battlefield equipment for a soldier is worth the equivalent of two iPhone6s while a similar set of equipment for a US soldier is worth a mid-sized car.

The PLA Daily of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Monday posted on its Wechat an article written by a self-proclaimed science blogger who said that the Southern Weekly's article "ignorantly blackened" the PLA's image.

The PLA Daily later removed the article.

The Southern Weekly article, published on December 4, said that Chinese soldiers today still wear plain steel helmets while their US counterparts use Kevlar helmets with communication technologies.

It also said that few Chinese soldiers are provided with bulletproof jackets though China is one of the largest exporters of such jackets.

A soldier told the Weekly that in a recent drill he finally got to wear underpants with elastic waistbands rather than ropes, but the "communication between soldiers still depends on yelling."

Graphics that go with the story show a Chinese soldier's wearable equipment costs about 8,000 yuan ($1,293).

Five of the 14 illustrations are totally wrong, said the PLA Daily article, adding that China already has helmets that could be equipped with communication technology devices like wireless headphones.

As for the bulletproof jacket, it argued that soldiers' fighting load should be as light as possible and that even some US special troops are not equipped with similar jackets.

The article also listed other factual mistakes of the Southern Weekly report, criticizing it of fabrications and "fawning on the US army."

In response, Southern Weekly altered the illustration on its Sina Weibo account and apologized Tuesday afternoon.

But in a separate Weibo post it challenged the PLA Daily, asking it to tell the Chinese people how much a PLA soldier's equipment is worth.

"Is it worth more than two iPhone6s?" the Weekly said.

An anonymous source from the Weapon magazine of the China North Industries Group Cooperation, a main manufacturer of military equipment and weapons, said it is meaningless to compare China with the US in terms of equipment prices.

In modern warfare, he said, the development of fighter jets and ground weapons is more important than personal equipment, but in battling terrorists, personal equipment is important and that's why the US army in recent years rapidly developed its soldiers' equipment.

"Whether to provide expensive battlefield equipment is a strategic decision," he said, adding that inaccurate stories will severely mislead readers and create an impression that Chinese soldiers are not treated well and are poorly equipped.

Though there are some factual errors in the Southern Weekly's article, some problems it presented like the slow updating of equipment and inconvenient uniforms and backpacks do exist, Liu Zhibin, a military expert with junpin360.com, a popular military website, told the Global Times on Tuesday.