Another possibility is that the guy in picture is just wearing airsoft gear for a demo given the fact that he is a student.
Infantry Combat Equipment (non-firearm): Vests, Body Armor, NVGs, etc.
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Well, "student" of the most prestigious "university" (military academy) directly ran and affiliated with the Central Military Commission, in charge of training future high ranking PLA officers and engineers forming the backbone of the fighting force. The NUDT (in US terms) is essentially a mix of MIT and West Point, not exactly a normal university. And considering RnD in the institution consumes millions in funds on a monthly basis, I doubt they would be saving on a few pieces of infantry gear, simply not worth it
PLAAF is still using CJ-6, a piston trainer that first flew in 1958. PLA is a cheapskate.
And pretty much every branch of the US military still uses the Beechcraft T-34 trainer, which first flew in the 1940s, are they also cheapskates? Not exactly a fair comparison
From wikipedia:
USAF is nowhere as cheap as the PLAAF.
China hasn't fought any wars in the last 30 or so years and is not expecting much heavy ground fighting in the future, therefore infantry equipment are not exactly priority items.
It's either for ceremonial fights or practice its not really in action, not sure where you are getting the conclusion that the PLAAF would use the CJ-6 for combat
plawolf
Lieutenant General
There is no such convention. It’s down to personal preference and equipment setup.
For what they have got - digital NVGs for navigation and long range thermal weapons sights, having the NODs on their dominant eye makes perfect sense since they will only be using the NODs to get into position, and would be using their thermal scopes for target ID and shooting. Using one eye for both means they retain their natural night vision in their non-dominant eye.
With thermal weapons sights like that, you are not going to be doing snapshots so the second or two you loose flipping your NODs up is irrelevant. If they wanted to round off their setup, they can add an IR aiming laser to allow them to do active aiming if there is a good chance they might run into hostiles unexpectedly at close range. But since they are boarder guards in open country, that chance is small enough as can be safely discounted for standard issue equipment.
