17 mln students join military training annually

Over 17 million students from 2,000 universities and 22,000 high schools across the country attend military training each year, according to a recently concluded national conference on the military training of university students. The meeting was held in Chengdu, provincial capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Sept. 25-26. At the conference, participants discussed ways to improve the military training of students under the new situation, based on experience gained in past years. So far, the government has reached its target of carrying out military training among university and high school students, and efforts will be made to standardize the training in order to meet the requirements of fostering talents and army reserves, according to the meeting. In 1985, China began to conduct military training among some university students. Over the past 27 years, a comprehensive military training mechanism has been set up for university and high school students.