China’s new veterans’ law to be reviewed at National People’s Congress next week
- Campaigners welcome news as veterans of wars and nuclear programmes continue to fight for better rights
- Observers hope new legislation will also benefit 300,000 ex-soldiers laid off in military shake-up but fear it may fall flat at local level
China’s top legislative body is set to review the first draft of a new law designed to better protect the interests of the country’s 57 million war veterans, campaigners say, but concerns remain as to how effectively it will be implemented.
Li Xiao, a 64-year-old veteran campaign leader, said he had been told that the draft, which comprises 83 articles in 11 charters, had been submitted to the National People’s Congress (NPC), which begins its annual session on Tuesday.
“This is the law the veterans have been waiting for for decades, with many retired senior military officers pushing for it since the 1970s. Now, we finally see a ray of hope,” said the former artillery soldier who was involved in China’s nuclear tests from 1978 to 1981.
“My health was poor when I retired in 1981, and many of my colleagues also suffered from various kinds of cancers after retirement.
“But most of us never received any proper treatment, so we hope our problems will be resolved as soon as the law is ready.”
As a leader of campaigns in southeast China’s Anhui province, Li said he hoped the new legislation meant his fellow ex-servicemen no longer needed to take to the streets of their hometowns or travel to Beijing to air their grievances.