The traditionally army-dominated Chinese military in its latest drill introduced a joint command made up of chiefs from different armed forces.

Commanders in the Jinan Military Area, where the eight-day "Coalition 209" drill ended on Sunday, said the joint exercise is the first of its kind in the army's history to include the navy, the air force as well as the second artillery, the army's nuclear weaponry division, along with the land force during the operation command.

The armed police and local governments in Shandong and Henan also became part of the decision-making body for the first time.

Military observers have speculated for years that the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which will mark its 82nd anniversary in a month, has been mulling over establishing a cross-sectional mechanism to replace the traditional decision-making procedure in which the stronger land force has a bigger say on military operations involving different armed forces.

If such a reform is made, the operations in different military areas will be decided by a joint command comprised of chiefs from different armed forces, which will be known as a war zone command, observers predicted.

The 2.3 million-strong PLA, under the top command of the Central Military Commission, oversees seven military areas nationwide.

The term "military area" is more widely referred to in media reports, and is used to refer to the administration of the land forces in a particular area. The term "war zone" is used when referring to all the different armed forces in one military area.

But military specialists contacted by China Daily yesterday declined to predict the prospect of the reform.

"The distinction of the military areas and the war zones has been noted for years," Wang Fa'an, a senior researcher on the construction of armed forces with the Academy of Military Science.

Zhao Lide, deputy chief of staff of the Jinan Military Area, told Xinhua that similar joint command and joint exercises will likely become common practice.

The Jinan Military Area, which set up the PLA's first joint command for military exercises in February, will mobilize forces to support any task on the Chinese mainland.

(China Daily June 30, 2009)