Global Times - 21.08.2019

NATION

4

Wednesday August 21, 2019

 Mountain Eagle to cover missions in Xinjiang

New counter-terror force

Rescue

workers

provide

people with

life jackets in

Wenchuan,

Southwest

China’s

Sichuan

Province on

Tuesday. The

area was hit

by mountain

torrents and

mudslides

due to heavy

rain, which

killed one

and injured

four so far.

Photo: Xinhua

By Wang Qi

Peking University said on Monday a Filipi-
no student met its standards of scholarships
amid claims the school granted 470,000 yuan
($66,500) to the student with inadequate Chi-
nese language skills.
The Peking University Health Science Center
said on its website on Monday that the Filipino
student was enrolled into clinical medicine ma-
jor, which will be taught in Chinese. The student
passed the Philippine government selection pro-
cess, and qualified for the Chinese government’s
scholarship program.
The university’s statement came after netizens
posted offer of the student, claiming the student
was granted a 470,000-yuan scholarship. The
post also said that the student’s Chinese fluency
level does not meet the standards, so he was al-
lowed to take a one-year Chinese course in Shan-
dong University.
The post soon garnered heated discussions
online, as some netizens said the university’s
standards are too low in terms of international
students, while others weren’t satisfied with the
bumper scholarship it offered.
The university responded that the student will
not be allowed to take major courses if she fails to
pass the required tests.
Students with scholarships are evaluated an-
nually. One’s scholarship will be revoked if they
are considered inadequate, the university said.
According to China’s scholarship standard for
international students, the Filipino student can
get a maximum of 66,200 yuan scholarship per
year, while her tuition is 45,000 yuan per year.
Tuition for international students are always
higher than domestic students in most coun-
tries; therefore, the bumper full scholarships
make sense, Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the
Shanghai-based 21st Century Education Research
Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Xiong urged universities to take the enroll-
ment of international students seriously, mean-
ing that the students being enrolled should de-
serve the incentive.
Many international students also said study-
ing in China is a challenge for them academically.
“I have to pass the level 5/6 of HSK (the Chi-
nese Proficiency Test) and an IELTS 7.0 to enter
the university,” Yang Won-suk, a South Korean
student studying English literature at Nankai
University in Tianjin, told the Global Times on
Monday.
Piyanuch, a Thai postgraduate at Nankai Uni-
versity, also said that she has to work really hard
in China to keep pace with other students, espe-
cially considering she has to take two extra Chi-
nese courses per week.

By Guo Yuandan

The Chinese People’s Armed Police

have established a new counter-terror

special operations unit in Northwest

China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autono-

mous Region to adapt to the needs

of counter-terrorism missions there,

media reported on Tuesday.

The unit, called Mountain Eagle

Commando, was revealed to the pub-

lic for the first time, Chinese news-

paper Cankao Xiaoxi reported on

Tuesday.

It was formed under the military

reform and aims to deal with counter-

terror missions in Xinjiang and other

places in China.

The name “Mountain Eagle” came

from the unit’s designated battlefield:

mountains and plateaus. The unit’s

insignia is a flying mountain eagle

with its beak pointed to the ground

and claws open.

The Cankao Xiaoxi report did not

reveal when the Mountain Eagle

Commando was established.

It it said the unit has begun to take

shape, has passed a strict evaluation

process and is now capable of con-

ducting combat missions.

In 2018, the amount of ammuni-

tion used by the new commando unit

was equal to all of the other Armed

Police units in Xinjiang in the past

three years, said Peng Jingtang, chief

of staff of Armed Police Force in Xin-

jiang.

The leader of the Mountain Eagle

Commando Unit is Wang Gang, who

fought in Xinjiang’s counter-terror ef-

forts and participated in dealing with

more than a dozen of serious terrorist

incidents.

Zhang Xiaoqi, director of the in-

telligence bureau of the People’s

Armed Police staff department, told

the Xinhua News Agency previously

that the expansion of China’s security

interests in the new era has placed a

higher demand on the Armed Police

special operation forces.

The scope of missions for these

units has expanded from land to

sea, from within borders to beyond

borders, from stability maintenance

to safeguarding rights and interests,

Zhang said.

He noted that special operation

forces need to focus on key locations

but also cover the whole country.

China has two other counter-terror

ism commandos – the Guangzhou-

based Snow Leopard Unit, which was

established in 2002, and the Beijing-

based Falcon Unit, established in

1982, according to media reports.

This means the Armed Police now

operate three special units each in the

south, center and west, which reflects

Zhang’s vision.

The Armed Police aims to build

commando forces capable of con-

ducting missions at any time, in any

place, under all weather conditions,

and to deal with all factors, Cankao

Xiaoxi said in a separate report in

June.

By Liu Xuanzun

An echelon of China’s domes-
tically developed Z-20 helicop-
ters was spotted on Monday in
a video that was purported in
the media to be a rehearsal for
the upcoming National Day pa-
rade, leading analysts to believe
that the country’s newest chop-
per could make its public debut
at the October 1 event.
Multiple Z-20 helicopters,
and other military choppers,
flew in formation near south-
east Beijing’s Yizhuang area, as

seen in a video the Aerospace

Knowledge magazine posted

on its Sina Weibo account on

Monday.

The Z-20 echelon seems to

be preparing for the military pa-

rade that will celebrate the 70th

birthday of the People’s Re-

public of China, the Aerospace

Knowledge magazine said.

“The Z-20 has been in trials

for some time now, so it will not

surprise me if it makes its pub-

lic debut in the parade on Oc-

tober 1,” a military expert who

asked not to be named told the

Global Times on Tuesday.

The Z-20 is a 10 ton-class

medium-lift utility helicopter

often compared to the US’ UH-

60 Black Hawk.

It can have different ver-

sions to adapt to different ter-

rain and weather, and is expect-

ed to be used by both the army

and navy, analysts said, noting

it could operate on plateaus and

naval vessels.

As a utility helicopter it can

be used in many types of mis-

sions including personnel and

cargo transport, search and res-

cue, reconnaissance and anti-

submarine maneuver.

China’s Ministry of National

Defense confirmed the Z-20’s

development in 2013, when

media reported a Z-20 made a

trial flight at that time.

There have been multiple

sightings of the helicopter since

then, including one in May fea-

turing a Z-20 painted with an

army serial number, an indi-

cation of commissioning into

the military, according to Wei-

hutang, a column on military

affairs, which is affiliated with

China Central Television.

China has yet to officially an-

nounce the commissioning of

the helicopter, but military en-

thusiasts are eagerly waiting to

see it as they consider the Z-

a member of China’s most ad-

vanced “20 series” aircraft, with

the others being the J-20 stealth

fighter jet, the Y-20 large trans-

port plane and the H-20 strate-

gic bomber.

Latest military chopper expected to debut at National Day parade

PKU defends grants to

international student

Urgent rescue

Page Editor:

zhaoyusha

@globaltimes.com.cn