Kuang Mengzhao, a 22-year-old soldier, sports a Mohawk but sounds like a battle-hardened veteran when he speaks of national security and the army's duty.

"Just because you're living in peacetime doesn't mean the world is peaceful. There are often military movements in neighboring countries and regions," he said.

The son of a small-business owner in Xinning county, Hunan province, Kuang is keen on singing pop songs such as Dream Chaser. One of the love song's lyrics-"The blue sky in my heart is where life begins"-has personal significance for him.

"Serving in the army was a new beginning in my life. We feel proud when we can do something for our homeland when it needs us," he said.

Kuang and his comrades-in-arms in a mechanized infantry brigade are concentrated at M training base in Yunnan province, undergoing four months of combat exercises in accordance with the state leadership's ambition to cure "peace disease".

Peace hurts

Identified as a deadly corrosive to the military's fighting capacity, and the biggest challenge in preparing to win future wars, peace disease has invaded the Chinese army and weakened its capacity and willingness to fight, according to a senior officer at M base, who asked not to be named.

The M training base belongs to the Southern Theater Command, one of five war zones of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The STC was founded in 2016 and is responsible for the security of China's frontier bordering Vietnam, Myanmar and the South China Sea.

"It's China's south gate. The country's strongest economies-Guangdong province and Hong Kong-are located in the center of the Southern Theater Command," he said.

The training base is the PLA's only military training facility for mountain and jungle combat. Roughly 2,000 kilometers from Beijing, it comprises nearly 100 square kilometers of hills and thick vegetation.