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Easing family policy to ensure military recruits
The two-child policy was put into practice in early 2014 and did not lead to the baby boomin many provinces in China. [Photo by Zou Zhongpin/for China Daily]
The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012 announced thestrategic aim of "promoting balanced development of the population in the long term",which applies to the entire population, as well as its subgroups, including the "nationaldefense population".
The national defense population refers to that part of the population fit enough to join themilitary. The national defense population is critical to providing "sufficient" and "effective"supply of human resources to defend the country. "Sufficient" means enough people in theproper age group who can be enlisted in the military, and "effective" generally meanssatisfactory physical health of the group. In rough terms they mean quantity and quality.
The availability of eligible candidates has long been a problem with the military. Despiteits huge population, China suffers from a shortage of military personnel. Because of thefamily planning policy, which allows most couples to have only one child, anoverwhelming majority of youths today are the only children of their families. Most ofthese youths are not keen to join the military, because they need to take care of theirparents.
The lack of policy coordination has made the situation worse. For example, colleges beganeasing their admission criteria in 2000, enabling more high school graduates, mostly agedbetween 18 and 22, to seek higher education, while the conscription law continued toexempt or discourage college students from joining the military. As a result, a highpercentage of youths were excluded from the national defense population. This situationlasted for a decade.
Even this shrunken national defense population is found wanting in terms of quality.Despite the rising nutrition standards in China, the physical health of many youths is notgood enough for the military.
A report on Beijing's primary and secondary school students' health, issued in March2014, showed 21.6 percent of them were overweight, of which 50.2 percent had high bloodsugar levels, 46 percent had abnormal blood fat, 45.1 percent had fatty liver and 30.7percent had high blood pressure. As if those were not enough, 49.77 percent of the primaryschool students and 81.19 percent of those in middle schools were near-sighted. Nowonder, more than 60 percent of Beijing youths applying to join the army have failed topass the health test since 2006.
In 2014, the State had to change the weight, height and eyesight requirements in order torecruit enough youths in the military. Modern wars may no longer demand fierce physicalprowess, but bad health will prevent personnel from going through the necessary physicaltraining and thus compromise the fighting capability of the military.
This trend is unlikely to be reversed without changing the family planning policy, which,as the most influential demographic policy of China, has caused many problems - the mostprominent being the high percentage of single children and their reluctance to join themilitary.
The State pays a minimum subsidy of 600 yuan ($97) a year to rural parents who haveonly one child or two daughters. This subsidy is too small for rural parents to risk thedeath of their only child and thus prevents them from encouraging their offspring to jointhe military.
To have a sufficient and effective national defense population, the State needs to firstestablish a series of programs for senior citizens and risk-prevention mechanisms in a bidto offset the effects of the family planning policy.
The authorities have allowed couples who are single children of their parents to have asecond child. But still the birth rate of second children has not seen any significantincrease, because not all such couples want a second child. Therefore, it is time to furtherease the family planning policy and allow more families to have a second child so thatmore youths can come forward to join the military without having to worry about who willtake care of their parents.
The author is a professor at the PLA Family Planning Official Training Center. The articlefirst appeared in Population Research.
(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Editor:Gao Yinan,Huang Jin)
Easing family policy to ensure military recruits - People's Daily Online
The two-child policy was put into practice in early 2014 and did not lead to the baby boomin many provinces in China. [Photo by Zou Zhongpin/for China Daily]
The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012 announced thestrategic aim of "promoting balanced development of the population in the long term",which applies to the entire population, as well as its subgroups, including the "nationaldefense population".
The national defense population refers to that part of the population fit enough to join themilitary. The national defense population is critical to providing "sufficient" and "effective"supply of human resources to defend the country. "Sufficient" means enough people in theproper age group who can be enlisted in the military, and "effective" generally meanssatisfactory physical health of the group. In rough terms they mean quantity and quality.
The availability of eligible candidates has long been a problem with the military. Despiteits huge population, China suffers from a shortage of military personnel. Because of thefamily planning policy, which allows most couples to have only one child, anoverwhelming majority of youths today are the only children of their families. Most ofthese youths are not keen to join the military, because they need to take care of theirparents.
The lack of policy coordination has made the situation worse. For example, colleges beganeasing their admission criteria in 2000, enabling more high school graduates, mostly agedbetween 18 and 22, to seek higher education, while the conscription law continued toexempt or discourage college students from joining the military. As a result, a highpercentage of youths were excluded from the national defense population. This situationlasted for a decade.
Even this shrunken national defense population is found wanting in terms of quality.Despite the rising nutrition standards in China, the physical health of many youths is notgood enough for the military.
A report on Beijing's primary and secondary school students' health, issued in March2014, showed 21.6 percent of them were overweight, of which 50.2 percent had high bloodsugar levels, 46 percent had abnormal blood fat, 45.1 percent had fatty liver and 30.7percent had high blood pressure. As if those were not enough, 49.77 percent of the primaryschool students and 81.19 percent of those in middle schools were near-sighted. Nowonder, more than 60 percent of Beijing youths applying to join the army have failed topass the health test since 2006.
In 2014, the State had to change the weight, height and eyesight requirements in order torecruit enough youths in the military. Modern wars may no longer demand fierce physicalprowess, but bad health will prevent personnel from going through the necessary physicaltraining and thus compromise the fighting capability of the military.
This trend is unlikely to be reversed without changing the family planning policy, which,as the most influential demographic policy of China, has caused many problems - the mostprominent being the high percentage of single children and their reluctance to join themilitary.
The State pays a minimum subsidy of 600 yuan ($97) a year to rural parents who haveonly one child or two daughters. This subsidy is too small for rural parents to risk thedeath of their only child and thus prevents them from encouraging their offspring to jointhe military.
To have a sufficient and effective national defense population, the State needs to firstestablish a series of programs for senior citizens and risk-prevention mechanisms in a bidto offset the effects of the family planning policy.
The authorities have allowed couples who are single children of their parents to have asecond child. But still the birth rate of second children has not seen any significantincrease, because not all such couples want a second child. Therefore, it is time to furtherease the family planning policy and allow more families to have a second child so thatmore youths can come forward to join the military without having to worry about who willtake care of their parents.
The author is a professor at the PLA Family Planning Official Training Center. The articlefirst appeared in Population Research.
(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Editor:Gao Yinan,Huang Jin)
Easing family policy to ensure military recruits - People's Daily Online
