BEIJING: The award ceremony for the August 1 Medal, the highest honor in the Chinese military, was held in Beijing on Wednesday, on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which falls on August 1 this year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), conferred medals and certificates to the awardees.
The August 1 Medal is granted to those military personnel who have made outstanding contributions to safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and to advancing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces.
Three recipients of the August 1 Medal are Du Fuguo, a young demining soldier; Qian Qihu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE); and Nie Haisheng, commander of the epic Shenzhou-12 manned spaceflight mission.
Du, 31, lost his eyes and arms in 2018 when trying to protect others during a border-area mine clearance operation. In the three years prior to the accident, Du entered mine fields more than 1,000 times. During his career, he removed more than 150 tonnes of bombs, 400 land mines and handled over 20 emergency situations.
Born in 1937, Qian has spent over 60 years studying protection engineering, helping China to build an indestructible “Steel Great Wall” underground. He won the country’s top science award, the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, in 2019 and later donated all his prize money to help poor children receive an education.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN
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