From The Power and Interest News Report (PINR):
The National Defense University (N.D.U.) of the People’s Liberation Army (P.L.A.) is China’s foremost military education institution. An average of 1,000 Chinese officers graduate every year in diverse fields of study. For many years after its founding in 1984, the N.D.U. has been relatively unknown to the outside world, with very few foreign officers being allowed to attend the more advanced courses.
Those who were accepted came primarily from countries perceived to be friendly to China such as Cuba, North Korea and various other third world states that usually had poor relations with the West. The very few Western officers who attended the N.D.U. were usually confined to short symposium type courses with very little of substance being offered.
Until recently, the N.D.U. was a very closed and discrete club, open only to China’s military elites and its foreign “friends.” To this day, the N.D.U. does not host a website where prospective students could obtain the most basic information about the university. Information is provided to future students directly by the Chinese military attach√© in their respective countries, with students only gaining access to the school’s site a few days after enrollment. [Full Text]
