Days ago, in line with the requirements of the "Outline for Armed Forces Construction at the Grassroots Level", the Party committee of a sub-department of the Nanjing Military Area Command made efforts to strengthen its subordinate Party branches by upgrading their ability to lead troops to fulfill combat tasks.

　 "If we want to build the logistics sub-department into the frontline logistics shock team in the future battle, we must first of all build the grassroots Party branches into "fighting bastions". In recent years, in the light of this thinking, the Party committee of the sub-department took specific measures to build grassroots Party branches into fighting bastions.

　　The Party committee of the sub-department stuck to the principle that the selecting and using of personnel must serve the central task of upgrading the combat capability of troops. In a support exercise held 3 years ago, some elements suffered setbacks because members of Party branches knew little about combat command. From this incident, the Party committee of the sub-department learned that upgrading battle effectiveness must be the sole standard in selecting Party branch members. According to the requirement of being capable of winning battles, the sub-department tested Party branches under it one by one, and some officers trained in military academies and with higher military qualities were selected to reinforce those branches, which were weak in leading troops to fulfill combat tasks.

　　To consolidate the strong and to reinforce the weak is one of the measures taken by the sub-department to build grassroots Party branches into "fighting bastion". Members of the Party committees both at the sub-department and regiment levels were assigned to be responsible for helping one grassroots Party branch to upgrade its capability to lead troops to fulfill combat tasks. 78 Party branch members with potentials were sent to military command academies to receive further training. In addition, the sub-department also invited experts and professors from universities and colleges to give lectures on high-tech knowledge and campaign theory.

　　The sub-department set strict demands upon the Party branches, and honed their skill to fight tough battles in the future. Through holding field training and support drills, the operational commanding capability of those Party branches under the sub-department was greatly boosted. In the past 3 years, 20 Party branches have won the title of "outstanding grassroots Party organization" and more than 50 Party secretaries and deputy secretaries were cited.

　　By Wu De and Ding Guangyang

　　(November 25, PLA Daily)