Thank you for the article you linked. That was an informative read.
China's Defense/Military Breaking News Thread
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They usually have enough volunteers for the conscript positions.
Going to conscription intakes twice a year and extending off-unit initial training to 6 months also means a significant increase in overall unit proficiency.
It would also mean an average of an additional 175k conscript personnel in the training pipeline over current levels
I briefly went over the article.
(1) The article has a weird definition and usage of the word conscript:
The common definition of conscript is somebody who is compulsed into military service. Except in the article they also refer to people who voluntarily join as conscripts.
(2) The article claims that the PLA is a conscription style army, but doesn't really justify why. It simply provides a link to the Military Service Law. The law only states that the PLA military service system combines 义务兵 "conscripts" and 志愿兵 "volunteers". Article 18 of the law states that 义务兵 are called "conscripts" (义务兵, 义务 is better translated as duty/obligation?) and 志愿兵 are called "non-commissioned officer" (士官, tbh is this even a good translation?). Article 19 of the law just states the length of 义务兵 service as 2 years.
No data is provided by the article on the number of volunteers to the PLA. This appears to be a classic case of interpreting how the law is written instead of how the law is practiced. The reality is that universal conscription is not practiced and the majority of new recruits are volunteers even if they are called 义务兵.
(3) The article just seems to go onto refer to all newly recruited members of the PLA (<2 years) as "conscripts".
The above quote from the article is just a translation of Article 20 of the law that states 义务兵 can choose to continue service as 士官 after their two year terms are finished.
(4) The article states that 400,000 new personnel must join the PLA annually, but doesn't provide how it reached that number. But even assuming that the number is correct, 400,000 per year is not a lot in a 1.4 billion person country. For reference there was 10.62 million births in 2021. 400,000 from the 2021 cohort is just 3.7%. In 2019 there was 14.65 million births and that would just be 2.7%.
"PLA is so tyrannical they conscript people against their will!"
"PLA is so corrupt that people have to pay to join!"
???????
If the PRC defense budget gets additional changes with the upcoming CPC elections this year, that would be a good indicator that they recognize the greater need to counter potential hostilities in the immediate future.
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