Chi Linh city, Hai Duong province is a sacred land with extraordinary people, where there are many beautiful landscapes and historical relics. It is an important trading hub in the key economic region of Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh, while witnessing robust industrial development and attracting a lot of investment capital and domestic and foreign labour. Despite favorable conditions for economic development, some complicated issues relating to defence and security still loom. Against that backdrop, over the past few years, in addition to focusing on socio-economic development, the city’s all-level party committees and authorities have paid full attention to directing the performance of defence and security task. More importantly, the work of defence and security education has been conducted via synchronous solutions and achieved good results as the basis for building the all-people national defence and the all-people national defence posture associated with the people’s security posture and a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds.”

In order to steer defence and security education towards the right direction and ensure its quality and efficiency, the City Military Command (CMC) has thoroughly grasped Directive 12-CT/TW, dated May 3^rd, 2007 by the 10^th Politburo on “enhancing the Party’s leadership over defence and security education in the new situation,” the Law on Defence and Security Education, guidelines and instructions by the Defence and Security Education Councils of the Military Region 3 and Hai Duong province. Grounded on those documents, it has advised the City Party Committee and People’s Committee to issue resolutions, plans, and directives on defence and security education accordance with the city’s particularities. Simultaneously, the CMC has promoted its core role in coordinating and conducting this work. To this end, the city has attached great importance to well carrying out the work of propaganda and education to render its cadres and party members, especially the leading ones at all levels as well as its citizens deeply aware of the importance of defence and security education in the cause of national construction and defence, hence achieving a consensus and heightening a sense of responsibility. At the same time, the city has directed its affiliates at all levels to regularly staff their Defence and Security Education Councils sufficiently according to the Law, review and supplement the regulations on these councils’ operation, and assign specific tasks to each member.

The conference to inspect the work of defence and security education in 2020

Currently, the city has more than 120 central and local agencies, units, factories, and schools; therefore, there are a huge number of people who need to be educated on national defence and security. In order to achieve the set goals, annually, the CMC cooperates with the City Organisation Commission and the City Office of Home Affairs in firmly grasping the quantity of learners and classifying them into groups to develop education plans and inform agencies, communes and wards of the education targets. Notably, in recent years, in order to create a favorable condition for cadres to both participate in training courses and do their jobs, the city has requested the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council to grant permission for cooperation with the Provincial Military School (currently the Regiment 125) in opening classes for cadres of the group 3. At the same time, it has instructed the CMC to collaborate with the City Political Training Centre and commune-level Defence and Security Education Councils to organise training classes for cadres of the group 4. Emphasis has been placed on expanding groups of learners, including lecturers of universities, managers of non-state enterprises, religious dignitaries and heads of family houses. In a relatively short time, with numerous contents and demanding requirements, to ensure the quality, the city has directed units to well prepare facilities, textbooks, documents, drill grounds, select, train and build a contingent of instructors, most of them are cadres of the City Propaganda and Education Commission, the CMC and the City Public Security. It has proactively renewed the contents and forms of education, supplemented appropriate topics, associated theory with practice of national defence and security at local and grass-roots levels. Cadres of the group 4 have been provided with a chance to observe commune-level defensive combat exercises and drills on natural disaster and forest fire prevention and mitigation as well as on search and rescue. In the period 2015-2020, within the city, 198 officials of the groups 2 and 3 and 1,600 cadres of the group 4 have completed defence and security education courses. As a result, the awareness, qualification, leadership, direction and administration of party committees and authorities towards the defence and security work as well as departments and unions’ capacity to give advice on this work have been raised.

To educate students on national defence and security, the city has instructed the Department of Education and Training to cooperate with the CMC and related agencies in formulating and realising training plans in accordance with the Law on Defence and Security Education and higher echelons’ guidelines. Since 2020, under the Decision 2320/QĐ-BQP, dated July 25^th, 2020 by the Defence Minister, the city has directed the Sao Do University, the College of Transport, and the College of Mechanics and Construction to maintain cooperation in defence and security education at the Defence and Security Education Centre under the Military Region 3’s Military School. In addition, the city has ordered the CMC to support and inspect the provision of defence and security education for high-school students in the area. Under its leadership, schools have strictly maintained defence and security education programmes, combined defence and security education with dissemination of local revolutionary tradition, and organised extracurricular activities, such as visit to museums and historic sites, exchange programme with public security and military units in the area, and war veterans’ talk about national and military tradition. Meanwhile, the city holds defence and security education competitions every two years for high-school students. These events enable students to broaden their knowledge, improve their qualities and personality, and raise their awareness and responsibility for the Homeland defence.

Imparting the knowledge of national defence and security to all people has a far-reaching influence on and plays an important part in building the politico-spiritual potential and the “posture of people’s hearts and minds.” Fully aware of that, the city has required sectors and units at all levels to apply a variety of forms and measures aimed at propagating and disseminating the knowledge of national defence and security, with emphasis placed on sensitive areas and industrial zones where a large number of workers temporarily live. Annually, the city directs the formulation of propaganda plans, outlines and contents, while opening columns and designing news and articles to disseminate legal documents, the Party’s defence and security guidelines, and the local military-defence work. In this regard, consideration has been given to clarifying the role of national defence and security in local economic development, environmental protection and social security. The propaganda work has been aimed at making the people fully recognise the hostile forces’ plots to take advantage of tourism and economic investment, and disagreement between employees and employers to incite strikes in factories and enterprises, organise large-scale lawsuits upon land acquisition and site clearance, to utilise cyberspace to release fake news, to distort the Party’s undertakings and guidelines, the State’s laws and policies, to undermine solidarity, cause social instability and sabotage governments. The propaganda work has been flexibly conducted and centred on promoting the efficiency of mass media, especially the City Radio Station and commune-level radio system. Furthermore, this work has been integrated into activities and meetings of agencies, departments and unions. Activities, such as seminar, youth forum, and game show have helped promote the role of reporters, communicators and cultural institutions at the grass-roots level. Since 2015, the city has released nearly 1,900 news and articles relating to national defence and security on the radio and TV broadcasting systems at all levels, and organised hundreds of oral propaganda sessions for officials and citizens, thereby creating a widespread and practical effect.

Moreover, the city has directed the local armed forces to collaborate with main military units stationed in the area in intensifying mass mobilisation and local construction as well as in building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds.” In particular, the city has associated propaganda on national defence and security with tourism advertising, management of migrant workers, new-style countryside construction and the building of a cultural environment in industrial zones and enterprises. Budget has been spent on forming a system of panels, slogans, leaflets, galleries, and tourist handbooks with the aim of propagating the sacred land’s revolutionary tradition. Thankfully, doing so has helped raise public awareness, instil patriotism, national pride, duty and responsibility to protect the Motherland not only amongst locals but also millions of tourists who visit historic relics, such as Con Son Pagoda, Kiep Bac Temple, and Chu Van An Temple, and build the increasingly solid all-people defence and people’s security posture.

Those above-mentioned results act as a driving force for all-level party committees, authorities, unions and citizens of Chi Linh city to continue well performing the work of defence and security work in particular, the local military-defence work in general, with a view to comprehensively developing Chi Linh into a leading city in the Northeast of Hai Duong province to be worthy of the tradition of a sacred land with extraordinary people.

Colonel TRAN NGOC THUC

Member of the City Party Committee Standing Board

Commander of the CMC

Vice Chairman of the City Defence and Security Education Council