A Subordinate Brigade of the PAP 2nd Mobile Corps Makes Personnel Selection and Appointment More Objective and Fair

A Subordinate Brigade of the PAP 2nd Mobile Corps Makes Personnel Selection and Appointment More Objective and Fair——

"This Is Exactly the Kind of Officer Who Should Be Promoted"

■ PLA Daily Reporters Wang Yue, Zhang Yao

The sky was high and clear, the plateau bursting with green. Reporters entered a subordinate brigade of the People's Armed Police 2nd Mobile Corps and, in the lobby of the headquarters building, saw an official document: a public announcement regarding the promotion and appointment of several officers including Zhang Junji.

Over the course of several consecutive days of reporting, whether at the headquarters organs or at the grassroots frontline, reporters heard a strikingly consistent assessment from everyone: those who devote themselves to preparing for war and concentrate their efforts on studying and planning for combat deserve to rise to the top.

"In the past, when it came to promotions, merit citations, and awards, certain comrades would play petty tricks (耍'小聪明') and scheme behind the scenes (打'小九九'), chilling the hearts and sapping the motivation of those who genuinely wanted to work and were capable of working," the brigade's Human Resources Section chief said frankly. As political rectification training (政治整训) has continued to deepen, the soil for "cultivating connections" (搭天线) and "putting in a word" (打招呼) has been cleared away, and the phenomenon of "running around seeking favors and sending gifts" (跑找要送) and "angling for special consideration" (争取关照) has disappeared.

Late last year, a vacancy opened at a certain post within the brigade. After thorough deliberation, the brigade Party committee ultimately recommended Zhang Junji, commander of a subordinate detachment.

Leafing through Zhang Junji's career record, reporters gained a full appreciation of his "hard credentials" (硬实力): he has served on the plateau for many years, successively participating in major missions including the Wenchuan earthquake relief operation, the Zhouqu mudslide emergency rescue, and the Nepal earthquake relief operation; he has been awarded second-class merit citations once and third-class merit citations five times; he was recognized as an "Advanced Individual in the National Highway Traffic Joint Emergency Drill" and commended by the PAP as a "Loyal Guardian of Chinese Armed Police" (中国武警忠诚卫士)……

"This is exactly the kind of officer who should be promoted." That evening, reporters entered the brigade's Operations and Training Section office and found Staff Officer Liu, who had only transferred in the previous year, still revising a planning document for a major upcoming mission. He told reporters that Zhang Junji had received his transfer order a couple of days earlier, but still felt uneasy about the handover of detachment work, and so had requested permission from brigade leadership to conduct one more inspection of the road sections under the detachment's maintenance responsibility before formally taking up his new post.

The opportunity was not to be missed, and reporters decided to accompany Zhang Junji on a road patrol.

The vehicle traveled along the Xinjiang–Tibet Highway, the boundless plateau stretching beyond the windows. By the time they reached the detachment, it was deep into the night. Zhang Junji was bent over a map, assessing road conditions with several key personnel. A pencil moved and circled in his hand, carefully marking every possible risk point along the route. Looking up, the clock read 0047. "Get some rest—the daytime mission will be demanding," Zhang Junji told reporters, giving them fair warning. That stretch of road, Zhang Junji had patrolled countless times; for the reporters, it was the first.

Before dawn, when reporters arrived at the office, Zhang Junji was already hard at work. "Detachment Commander Zhang is about to take up his new post, and everyone is very happy for him. There has been no send-off banquet or dinner hosting—everyone is making the most of the time to carry out the work handover, and Detachment Commander Zhang is holding nothing back, passing on every bit of his years of work and training experience," engineer Wang Xingming told reporters as the vehicle set off. Officers and soldiers need not spend their limited energy on social obligations; doing the work well is the greatest support one can give to one's comrades.

Traveling along the plateau's sky road (高原天路), the oxygen-depleted environment left reporters with headaches and shortness of breath, with no capacity to appreciate the scenery outside the window. Zhang Junji's gaze, however, remained fixed outward the entire time, sweeping over every inch of road surface like a scanner: "Watch for base cracks" … "Check over there for any potholes" …

At one large bridge, Zhang Junji noticed settlement cracks in the cone-shaped protective padding and immediately signaled Senior Sergeant First Class Yu Hualong to launch an unmanned aerial vehicle to inspect the bridge's condition. The damaged point was quickly and precisely located and promptly repaired.

Zhang Junji reflected to reporters that political rectification training has cracked down hard on formalism and falsification (治虚打假), clearing away chronic malpractices such as putting on shows (搞花架子) and doing cosmetic work (做门面工程), enabling them to devote all their thoughts and energy to training troops and preparing for war. The detachment's officers and soldiers have taken science and technology empowerment as their entry point for improving training methods, and have developed more than ten plateau operational methods—including rapid deployment procedures and winter snow removal and permafrost handling techniques—effectively resolving the problems of low efficiency and high risk associated with traditional methods.

The reporting concluded, and again it was deep into the night; Zhang Junji and his comrades were still at work. Beneath a sky full of stars, reporters recalled something he had said: "The deeper political rectification training goes, the more thoroughly the shackles constraining future victory are removed, and the more cleanly the chronic ailments affecting the quality and effectiveness of training are excised."