Officers and soldiers of a division of the Jinan Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) have conducted a rigorous and demanding training session before being deployed to carry out a peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

Nearly 300 officers and soldiers of the 12th corps of the Chinese peacekeeping military engineering contingent will be deployed in the Wau region of the South Sudan Republic in late March. They will carry out such missions as building roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and destroying arms and ammunition caches.

Since July of last year, there has been armed conflict in South Sudan, and the situation has been steadily deteriorating. Liu Ruijiang, leader of the engineering contingent, said that in addition to daily physical training, the intensive training includes solo tactical training, professional training in military engineering, and training in psychological defenses. In order to enhance their rapid response capacity, the peacekeeping force engage in emergency and anti-terrorist attack drills once a week, and engage in field survival drill in unfamiliar areas twice a week. Shelter construction, firing practice, and battlefield rescue are also key subjects of this intensive training.

In addition, psychological experts have offered professional tutoring and psychological behavior training to the officers and soldiers. According to Zhu Sibin, political commissar of the contingent, "a long-term battlefield environment can bring about problems such as nervousness, fear and agitation. We will offer due guidance to officers and soldiers so that they can learn how to relax their mental state and adjust their psychology."