US to study Chinese military’s recruitment to assess battle readiness

Name: China intensifies combat training under Xi Jinping’s military plan
Uploaded: 2022-01-25T02:00:23.000Z
Duration: 2 min 8 s
Description: China intensifies combat training under Xi Jinping’s military plan

Government agency to compile report on shortfalls in personnel quality and how these affect leaders’ confidence in the military’s ability

But its approach of ‘buying information via a scattergun’ is inefficient and unreliable, Chinese observer says

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The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission is keen to learn about any shortfalls in Chinese military recruitment. Photo: Xinhua

Liu ZhenandMinnie Chan

Published: 10:00am, 25 Jan 2022Updated: 11:55am, 25 Jan 2022

The US is commissioning a study of China’s military recruitment, including identifying its weaknesses, to assess how confident the country is in its capacity to carry out missions.

The US Congress’ website has invited tenders to compile a report for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) about the demographics of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and issues involved in its personnel recruitment and retention.

It said the top priority was to establish what Chinese leaders considered the most significant shortfalls in PLA personnel quality, and how this affected their confidence in the PLA’s ability to execute missions.

“Do Chinese leaders perceive variation in personnel quality between the PLA [ground forces], PLA Navy, PLA Air Force and other services?” the bidding document said.

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China intensifies combat training under Xi Jinping’s military plan

“Where have the PLA’s recruitment and retention efforts fallen short? Assess the extent to which the different PLA services have met their goals for recruiting college graduates.”

Other questions that the report is tasked with answering include what the key personnel challenges are and how well the PLA is addressing them; what types of education or expertise the PLA values most and how well it is finding them; and how effectively its hybrid recruitment system of conscription and volunteering is working.