From astronauts to snipers, sky's the limit for China's female soldiers
Women are occupying more roles in the PLA, from snipers to fighter jet pilots, and experts say more are needed to boost the armed forces
When Major Liu Yang, China's first woman in space, returned to earth safely after a mission to the Tiangong-1 space station in late June, it reminded all Chinese people of an old saying proclaimed by Mao Zedong six decades ago: "Women hold up half the sky".
Liu, a People's Liberation Army representative at the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress, celebrated International Women's Day with other NPC deputies in Beijing yesterday.
The significance of Liu's space adventure, coming five decades after Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, is debatable, but it is an indication that women are playing a more significant role in the PLA.
Zhou Jianping , chief engineer of China's manned space programme and a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference delegate, said on Thursday that another female astronaut would be sent to the Tiangong-1, aboard the Shenzhou X spacecraft this summer. Mainland media have speculated that Song Yaping , who trained with Liu, could be next.
China started training female fighter-jet pilots in 1997, choosing the trainees - including Liu and Song - from among hundreds of thousands of high school students aged between 16 and 19. Just as male pilots, they had to finish a four-year training programme at the air force's First Aviation Preparatory School in Changchun, Jilin .
The first female fighter-jet team was formed in 2009 after 12 years of rigorous training. When some of them were selected to fly over Tiananmen Square in Jian-10s on October 1, 2009, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, they were given their first tailor-made uniforms.
More than 500 female pilots were trained since 1951, according to the PLA Daily, but before the fighter-pilot programme, all of them handled transport planes. The PLA Daily said the air force would also train women to fly bombers, early-warning aircraft, aerial tankers and other advanced airplanes.