国内英语新闻:Senior Chinese military official on political work

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese military official Saturday urged for improved efforts to deal with the work concerning political and legal affairs in the military.

Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing participants of a military meeting here.

Also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Xu urged military officials at various levels to further improve political awareness and their sense of urgency in handling the work concerning political and legal affairs.

Praising the remarkable achievements the military has made in work during the past five years, Xu said the armed forces should step up their efforts in this regard to ensure the military's purity and social stability in the coming five years.

He noted that the period of 2011-2015 is crucial for China's national defense and military capacity development.

Efforts to improve political work should be made towards ensuring the CPC's absolute leadership over the army, as well as maintaining social stability and creating a favorable environment for China's reforms and development, Xu said.

Also, he noted, more work should be done to improve the military members' ideological standards and their style of working, adding that unhealthy ways and customs must be corrected.