Army needs better soldiers: military expert

By Zhao Xu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-12 07:44

China's increased defense expenditures should be used to expedite reform of the army, one of the country's top naval warfare experts has said.

"More money should be spent recruiting professional soldiers who would serve longer terms," senior researcher with the People's Liberation Army Navy Equipment Research Center Yin Zhuo said.

Currently, there are two main categories of Chinese soldiers - drafted and voluntary enlistees.

Usually, drafted recruits serve two years, while voluntary recruits serve two to five.

Yin believed such durations of service have created many problems undermining the army's military capabilities.

"How much can one learn in a few years? Often, a soldier leaves the army right after learning the basics," Yin said.

"There is no time for more advanced training, so most recruits cannot perform duties like doing repair and maintenance work on various types of naval warships."

Also, hardly any of the drafted soldiers get a chance to participate in live ammunition drills - something that is "totally understandable", Yin said.

"How can we allow an inexperienced soldier who is about to leave fire a missile worth hundreds of thousands of RMB?"

Yin believed the answer is recruiting more professional soldiers who would ideally serve at least eight years.

"The army must spend a lot of money training every solider. For example, staging a demonstration can require sending submarines out to sea and involve a large number of soldiers, which can be stupendously expensive," he said.

"It is simply not cost-effective for the army to discharge the soldiers after two or three years.

"In addition, those who have served several years could reach the level at which they can handle highly sophisticated modern weaponry, including destroyers and submarines."

Yin said he believed the army urgently needed better-educated and more talented recruits.

"The overwhelming majority of drafted soldiers join soon after high school," he said.

"Frankly, their vision and personal development are severely hampered by their educational levels.

"If we do not have enough university graduates in the army from among which to choose, we will face grave challenges deciding leadership in 20 to 30 years' time."

The researcher, who had spent 17 years away from his wife during his military service, said the salaries and benefits the army offers are inadequate to attract talent.

"Drafted soldiers are not allowed to have girlfriends in places where the army is stationed, but that's OK because they are very young," he said.

"The real problem is faced by soldiers who enlist on their own, as most of them have reached marriage age or are married with children.

"No one wants to be away from his family for long."

In addition, such separation often contributes to higher living expenses for the entire family, which soldiers' average 1,000-yuan-plus monthly salaries do not sufficiently provide for, Yin added.

"That's where a certain amount of our defense expenditures should go if we really want a personnel upgrade," Yin said.

But Yin said he believed there was still an important role for drafted soldiers, and there should be a balance of the two types.

"Because drafted soldiers only stay in the army for two or three years, turnover is very high," he said.

"This ensures a large proportion of our young men have military experience, and such reservists are extremely important in times of war."