China’s military: one in five South China Sea submariners has mental health issues, study finds

Increase in frequency of military manoeuvres and long periods of isolation possibly to blame, researchers from Naval Medical University say

Study questioned more than 500 male servicemen working in the disputed region

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Chinese submariners operating in the South China Sea are experiencing mental health issues, according to new research. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:00pm, 31 Jan 2021Updated: 12:24am, 1 Feb 2021

One in five male sailors serving with China’s submarine force in the South China Sea experience mental health problems, according to new research.

The study by Naval Medical University in Shanghai of more than 500 servicemen and officers claims to be the first of its kind to highlight the psychological problems facing troops working in the disputed waterway.

Based on their answers to a self-assessment questionnaire, 21 per cent of respondents were found to be suffering from some degree of mental health problems.

The submariners also scored higher on indicators of anxiety and paranoid ideation – thinking that is dominated by suspicious or persecutory content – than the average for all Chinese military servicemen.

The findings suggested the submariners were “at higher risk of and have more serious psychological problems”, the researchers said in a report published this month in Military Medicine, a journal produced by the Society of Federal Health Professionals in the United States.