China's National People's Congress is considering amendments to the law that would expand compulsory military training at universities and 'national defense education' in high schools.
Under the amendments, branches of the People's Liberation Army will be stationed in colleges, universities and high schools across the country to boost a nationwide program of approved military education and physical training to prepare young people for recruitment, state news agency Xinhua reported on Sept. 10.
"The second draft of the revised bill clarifies that ordinary colleges, universities and high schools should strengthen military skills training, hone students' willpower, enhance organizational discipline, and improve the level of military training," the agency said in a summary of the amendments.
China has long had a culture of military training in schools and universities, with military-style boot-camps for kids on vacation and 'defense education bases' catering to corporations and tour groups. The authorities in Hong Kong have also imposed such training on former young protesters, alongside "patriotic education."
People’s Armed Forces departments already exist at every level of government, in schools, universities and state-owned enterprises to strengthen ruling Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, control over local militias, guard weapons caches and find work for veterans.
After decades of relative invisibility throughout the post-Mao economic boom, they are once more mobilizing to build militias in big state-owned companies and consolidate party leadership over local military operations.
But analysts say the amendments, if adopted, will standardize these activities under guidelines laid down by the CCP's military arm, in a bid to create more potential recruits as part of preparations for war. While Chinese citizens have an obligation to serve in the People's Liberation Army on paper, this hasn't been implemented since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
'Glorious' military service
Under the planned amendments, high schools will also be obliged to teach children about military service, and create an atmosphere in which military service is seen as "glorious," Xinhua said.
Primary and junior high schools are included in the plan, which calls on them to "combine classroom teaching with extracurricular activities," according to the China News Service.
"Students in colleges and high schools are required to offer compulsory basic military training, while junior high schools may also organize such activities," the report said.
According to a report in the Legal Daily newspaper, the amendments aim to build a nationwide program of military training that connects schools at all levels and of all types.
They also guarantee funding for these activities, which will include military camps and "national defense education bases," the paper said.
"They want students to know about national defense, an awareness of who the enemy is, at a much younger age," Shan-Son Kung, an associate researcher at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.
"[They also] want kids to get basic military training, which is being extended lower down the system, so as to universalize basic military knowledge," he said. "The aim is to step up preparations for a future war, so that there will be more conscripts available following the passing of the Mobilization Law."
The National Defense Mobilization Law of the People's Republic of China took effect on July 1, 2010, with the aim of setting up a nationwide structure for national defense mobilization.
Currently, the Chinese military mostly relies on recruitment, and most of the standing army are professional soldiers, Kung said.
"In the next few years, we could see growing tensions between China and the United States, and China may look to strengthen its economic and military mobilization as well as the frequency and scope of exercises sooner rather than later," Kung said. "They may be making advance preparations for a large-scale war."
'Educational brainwashing'
China already requires graduates in fluid mechanics, machinery, chemistry, missile technology, radar, science and engineering, weapons science and other technical disciplines to join the People's Liberation Army.
Taiwan-based Chinese dissident Gong Yujian said the Chinese Communist Party is aware that it may face great difficulty in recruiting young people to the military, given the shrinking of that age group due to the one-child policy, so it's stepping up pro-military propaganda while they're still young.
"They need to cultivate high school students to be loyal to the party and patriotic, and worship the People's Liberation Army," Gong said. "It's educational brainwashing."
"That way, they can join up after graduation and boost the People's Liberation Army's recruitment figures," he said.
Gong said he still has memories of some military training exercises from when he was in high school.
"When we were in school, we had seven days' military training, but it was just a formality," he said. "The local armed police force sent soldiers to our school to teach the students how to march, and how to fold a blanket."
"But we didn't even so much as touch a firearm," he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.