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Outside, the soldiers, all in baggy, bright khaki pants and tunics with red collar tabs, practice the arts of war. There are no ranks in the Chinese army, or at least none are worn on uniforms. All dress the same, from division commanders to privates. The officers of each company live with their men and "even our division commander must spend time each year in the company as an ordinary soldier. Every soldier knows immediately who is the superior, including the division and regimental commanders."
Only Basics. An instructor leads the recruits in bayonet practice with padded protective clothing. Teams of six men on each side lunge back and forth at each other shouting, red-faced and sweating. Another group practices taking apart and setting up an 82-mm. mortar. Another instructor conducts a discussion with a small group on how to destroy an M-47 American tank, using a scale model and shouting his lesson in clear, hard tones.
All the P.L.A. soldiers are volunteers serving two years. They receive only about $3 to $4 a month in spending money. The division, in accordance with the words of Chairman Mao, produces its own food. We watch P.L.A. men working to process soy beans into soy sauce, bean paste, vinegar and bean curd. The division also grows its own rice and raises 900-odd pigs. Everything fits into its objective of achieving self-reliance and, as Vice Commander Keng puts it, "lightening the burden of the locality." There is a very basic quality about the whole operation. The necessities of life with no refinements—rice, meat and soy sauce.
We tour the division's own small pharmaceuticals factory, which produces medicine for stomach ailments, aspirin and a digestive candy made from crab apples and honey. In some rooms, women close glass vials with a blow torch as soldiers fill the vials with yellow medicine. The operation is simple and clean. Most of the operations are done by hand.
Lunch is served to the visiting press. Asked about the threat of nuclear war, our host, Vice Commander Keng, hedges and says only, "Our leaders said that we Chinese people would not like to engage in battle with the American people. Rest assured we will not attack first." We find that Keng served in Korea. What does he think of the fighting ability of American soldiers? "Speaking frankly," he replies, "although the American soldiers' firepower is something, their fighting power does not match their firepower."
Then amid platters of duck, sweet and sour carp, braised pork, dumplings, cabbage and mushrooms, beer and port wine, the mood softens. Toasts are offered with fiery 140-proof mao-tai, and the conversation turns to the philosophy of war and military strategy. How has Chinese nuclear strategy changed in the last three years? Keng does not reply. The nonresponse may confirm that there has been a fierce debate and struggle between those in the military who would push to produce a modern technical army with nuclear weapons and those who would follow the wisdom of Chairman Mao and retain a people's army.
After lunch, Keng's men perform an amateur hour, including a skit in which the troops find eggs, a gift from the local peasants. They are not allowed to accept gifts, but finally reach a compromise and exchange a copy of the quotations of Chairman Mao and a letter of thanks for the eggs.