Ｗｅａｒ ａｎｄ Ｗａｒ－Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ Ｍｉｌｉｔａｒｙ Ｕｎｉｆｏｒｍ Ｒｅｎｅｗｅｄ

Chinese People's Liberation Army，launched its new round of uniforms change.Besides snazzy clothes and lavish exhibitions，the military wear is always related to wareither in the past， now or in the future. CouldPLA new dress mean a lot more...?

PLA， People's Liberation Armyof China， marks its 80th birthday notwith sweet cakes， but with a brand newchange of uniform this Aug.lst. Historyhas its record that the \"Red Army\" wassnowballing from a small batch of troops tothe present sizable servicemen team， so didits military garment from a baggy-lookingoutfits to an impressive style of uniforms.Gone are the days when servicemen' wearwas the old-school， Long-March-inspired，one-size-fits-all ...

Garrison Troops MadeDebut in New Dress

The newest military fashion had alreadymade debut on several occasions before theauthority announced， on Aug.lst， a nation-wide change for the new clothes to dressChina's 2.3 million people serving in thearmy. Last month was also marked withan extravaganza gala to celebrate HongKong on its 10th anniversary after Chinaresumed its territorial sovereignty over thisUK's 100-year old colony. As one of themost exciting attractions， the brand newceremonial and casual uniforms， dubbed\"07 Style\"， are different from the \"97Style\" military wear issued to garrisontroops in Hong Kong and Macao SARs(Special Administration Region) 20 yearsago. The new one has chest insigniato tell a wearer' position such as rankand length of service， a must with mostWestern military uniforms.

Battle FrontPerformance

Besides a new growth in aestheticvalue， the functionality or performance isone of the most valuable considerationsin the new uniforms. History provesthat military wear is closely relatedwith war in battle-field performance. Inthe Second World War， when Germanymachines moved in a blitz to where itwas only 24 kilometers close to Kremlinin Moscow， a frozen-cold snow stormswept the invaders' front field， drivingthe weather temperature down to minus40 degree Celsius. The ill-performingwinter clothes in the army led to a heavyCasualty for cold-bites and diseases，reducing 50% of its attacking powers inthe field troops.

To keep warmth is just as importantas it wards off the hot in the modernuniforms for the army. In US-led desertstorm operation on Iraq， US soldiersweathered through the scorching heaton the desert， the individual equipment，including special camos and smart dress，aroused global attention.

\"The performance of bullet-proofvests and helmets is very important， andthis was already demonstrated in theWorld War I， for the fast moving metalscraps and bits out of artillery explosionare more fatally powerful for a heavy tollof enemy than a direct gun shooting. Thisis even further proven in the World WarII where over 80% of casualties werefrom the flying metal bits of the grenadeand artillery explosion，\" said Mr. ZhouGuotai from a military logistics researchinstitute.

What should be provided tominimize the cost of heavy injuriesfrom battle field explosion? Mr. Zhouwent on to elaborate on the correlationof wear and war. \"We have noticed areport that tells a low mortality rate inthe jungle war in Vietnam and a bloodywar in North Korea， which would nothave been possible without a properindividual protective equipment like afiber-reinforced garment and helmet. Inmodern wars， saying， in the first gulfwar， and especially in the on-goingmilitary campaign that US lost merelyover a thousand' soldiers in this US-ledallied troops during a quite a prolongedwar in Iraq. Why is it so with such alower mortality?

An excellent individual equipmentof uniforms and helmets could be theanswer. Therefore， I think uniformsare important what the artillery is to anarmy， even more important than a newdesigned cannon.\"

Good personal equipment cansurely strengthen morals and confidencein mobilizing a soldier's proactivemovement in a battle and can have somepsychological impact on him. Just as youfeel safe with a life-vest on in a boat， asoldier has also a sense of safety whendressed in a set of specially designeduniforms， which is helpful to makehim feel more assured of being braveto march forward， to fight and to win.Material preparation is sort of impacton psychological behavior， the positiveside of it is better than an ideologicalslogan， asking soldiers \"not to feartorture or death， just to fight to protectmotherland !\"

Of course， \"07 style\" new uniformsare not all up to the war-time standardsexcept for some considerations offunctionality and performance that fibertechnology can offer now. Besides thequality and functionality of the outfits，the designers have focused mainly onimproving the aesthetics， says YangTingxin， senior engineer and presidentof the Quartermaster EquipmentInstitute (QEI)， who was responsiblefor the uniforms' designs， \"It would nothave been possible to carry out sucha uniforms revolution if the country'seconomy hadn't grown so rapidly，\" hesays.

New FunctionalFibers in China

New function andperformance of militaryuniforms can not be madepossible without takinginnovative and functionalfibers into process. China is the worldNo.1 country in terms of both naturalfiber and man-made fiber production andapplication. In its 10th textile industryFive-Year Plan (2001-2005)， China madea great progress in fiber， fabric andfinished product technology with respectto bamboo fiber， protein fiber， super hightenacity and high modulus fiber， carbonfiber， PTT fiber， aromatic fiber1313，high performance super fine fiber etc.，which have been presented in militaryapplications.

In the 11th Five Year Plan period(2006-2010)， China will strengthenits technological innovation， focusingelectronic information and bio-engineering and new materials. Thetechnologies in bi-component， super-fine， multi-structured， co-polymer，nanotechnology etc. are developed toproduce differentiated fiber， functionalfiber， high-performance fiber to bebroadly used in agriculture， hospital，architecture， aviation and aeronautics，national defense industries.

The new change has already absorbedmany of the technological advancementsto add functionality and performance tothe military uniforms now and will do soin the days to come.

Future Wear in Vision

Smart dress， characterized byinformation technology， is to bereinforced in the military quartermasterin the future. The individual equipmentshould develop into a soldier system，and the outfits to go with it should haveprotective function. To illustrate it， Mr.Zhou says that it should be comfortable，cold or hot， inserting air-conditioningeffect inside， possessing bullet-prooffunction and the function that can bestresist biochemical weapon attacks. Thecommunication system inside the apparelcan help a soldier contact his troopsor headquarter of his troops to reportwhere he is for artillery support. USA，UK and France have all been engagedin this networking system. China isalso doing so synchronically with theirdevelopment. \"We often discussed withresearchers in these countries and we arein close touch\"， emphasized Zhou.

New Change for SupplyPipeline and BigBusiness

Aside from battle field camouflagesin uniforms， tents or covers， the newceremonial uniforms are also made toa new standard. Companies that havewon the contracts to make the newceremonial uniforms feel happy withsuch a business which has brought abouta revolution in the supply pipeline ofmilitary quartermaster. The Army willno longer keep inventories and won't beinvolved in inventory management forceremonial uniforms. They outsourcedinventory management of these uniformsto private firms and slash storage costs.

The defense industry， which usedto be swathed in secrecy for a longtime， has now turned up a new degreeof transparency. Snazzy new uniformsand lavish exhibitions as a result oftechnological innovation， industrialadvances and armed forces reforms， areblurring the divide between defense andcivil industries. Chinese PLA is nowfocusing on that method to make gooduse of local resources from private sectorto reduce the size of their armed forcesand improve their combat effectiveness.

In process of this on-going reform， ithas， and will bring about a huge marketpotential for both local and overseassuppliers.

The uniforms upgrade will cost Chinasix billion Yuan ($789 million) by 2009.The per capita bedding and clothingexpenses of the Chinese armed forces，however， remain low compared to theworld average. This certainly providestremendous business opportunities toquality civil enterprises in Chinese textileindustry that is expected to increasescientific and technological contributionshare in its future growth profile.

In February， the Chinese authoritiesurged military units to fortify their linkswith civil enterprises for improvementof logistics management. In June， thegovernment was encouraging weapon-makers in less sensitive sectors to callfor private and overseas investors andincrease innovation.