THE People's Liberation Army (PLA) has warned against the ''spirit of mammonism'' corrupting combat-readiness.
The warning came amid reports of army units having made new strides in the business world.
In an editorial yesterday, the People's Liberation Army Daily said the socialist market economy had brought new challenges to the military.
The official newspaper called for the development of ''spiritual civilisation'', a euphemism for socialist values, to ensure the quality of the nation's fighting forces.
''The tendencies of using power to seek economic gains, mammonism, going after the good life, and materialism, which exist within a minority of our society, will be reflected within the armed forces,'' the paper said.
It called for the strengthening of spiritual civilisation to ''combat such negative, corrupt and ugly phenomena''. ''We must propagate revolutionary soldiers who have ideals, morals, culture and discipline.'' Socialist values the paper cited included ''the goal of serving the people whole-heartedly and maintaining the traditional spirit of the [pre-1949] Red Army''.