China drafts new law to protect veterans’ welfare, but will it pass muster?
Expert concerned the legislation will not go far enough to tackle the issues that drove thousands of frustrated retirees to take to the streets
China’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs has completed the first draft of a new law designed to protect the interests and welfare of 57 million retired members of the armed forces, state media reported on Friday, but observers are concerned it will fall short of its goal.
News of the document comes less than a month after armed police were sent in to disperse thousands of veterans who had staged a five-day rally in Zhenjiang, east China’s Jiangsu province, calling for better rights and an end to violence against them.
According to the report by People’s Liberation Army Daily, the draft, which comprises 83 articles in 11 charters, sought to tackle the key problems facing the nation’s veterans.
But Zeng Zhiping, a professor at Nanchang Institute of Technology in Jiangxi province, said he was concerned the new law would not get to the cause of the problems faced by veterans and that had pushed them to protest on the street.
“Veterans’ problems are long-standing and created by history,” he said. “There are still many war heroes that have not received the compensation and benefits they deserve, simply because they retired when China was still poor.”