Why former Chinese soldiers are sceptical about Xi Jinping’s promise of better treatment
Faced with mass protests that pose a threat to stability, Xi Jinping has pledged to set up a veterans’ affairs administration to improve their welfare
China’s ruling Communist Party, focused on ensuring stability and concerned about mass protests by military veterans, has announced plans for an administrative body similar to the US’ Department of Veteran Affairs to take better care of the country’s 57 million veterans.
However, former soldiers, accustomed to decades of disappointment and neglect, remain sceptical about the plan announced by party general secretary Xi Jinping on the first day of its national congress last month.
“We will protect the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families, and make being a serviceman a respected profession in our country,” Xi, who is also China’s president and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), told congress delegates in Beijing on October 18.
Thousands of veterans have taken to the streets in protest in recent years, demanding better welfare. A lack of legal protection for their rights and Beijing’s hands-off approach to their welfare has left many clinging precariously to the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder for decades.
Xi’s promise, the first expressed so powerfully by a party chief, is consistent with his ambitious goals for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA): for it to modernise by 2035 and become a top-ranked military by 2050.
But Sun Xingan, a 61-year-old veteran who took part in the Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979, told the South China Morning Post: “It’s good news, but for us it may be just a hope, not something we would expect.