China’s military is overhauling its promotion, recruitment and training of soldiers to develop a more professional armed forces to tackle combat in an increasingly complex international environment. The overhaul includes regulations on non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and conscripts that came into effect in late March, with a senior military officer saying combat effectiveness was now “the only and fundamental criterion”. According to state news agency Xinhua, the new regulations are meant to improve professionalism and reduce turnover among NCOs. The rules aim to do this through better a recruitment, training, rank promotion, benefits and demobilisation system for NCOs and conscripts, steps authorities see as vital for raising standards in the armed forces. In 2018, Chinese President and Central Military Commission chairman Xi Jinping called NCOs “the backbone” of the army, saying “the stability of this team is very important”. However, the NCO force has struggled with turnover and a lack of professional motivation and skills, according to an article published on social media by China’s defence ministry on April 25. In China, males over the age of 18 should register for military service. Conscription has never been enforced but some of these young men volunteer for two years of service and go on to become NCOs. To attract more talent into the NCO ranks, the article said, the source of NCO recruitment would be expanded to include the best conscripts and high school graduates . The changes are meant to meet “the urgent need to raise combat effectiveness” while also promoting the modernisation of military personnel , the article said. Under the new rules, NCOs will be divided into two categories – management and skilled NCOs – to recognise professional qualifications. There will also be a new post-qualification system to better match people with deployments. To better motivate NCOs, the PLA will abandon its promotion system based on years served and instead move towards promoting soldiers based on their abilities and qualifications. There will also be changes to the work and benefits of soldiers, including wages and housing. After leaving the military, NCOs will receive “monthly retirement benefits” in addition to help with starting their own business or finding work in another branch of government. Starting last year, China’s military has increased the induction of conscripts from once a year to twice a year, with the first half of the year starting in February and the second intake beginning in August. Military recruitment this year has mainly targeted university students and graduates, with priority given to students majoring in science and engineering and those with skills needed for war preparedness, according to a teleconference on China’s conscription work in January. China’s big military mission: to train elite commanders for joint operations Chinese military experts said the reforms made to recruit more talent and the measures to make the NCOs more professional were in line with the modernisation of PLA equipment. “The technical level of our military equipment is getting higher, and high-quality talent is needed to master it. Otherwise, it will be difficult to form combat effectiveness,” said Fu Qianshao, a retired equipment specialist from the PLA Air Force in Beijing. Fu cited the example of fighter jet pilots who were required not only to operate the systems but also have a high awareness of the situation to make judgments in a complex battlefield environment. After 300,000 personnel were cut from China’s military in 2017, the PLA now consists of 2 million active duty officers and civil cadres, NCOs and conscripts. Fu said the number of military personnel might be smaller but their abilities would rise with training, assessment, and tests. Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology institute in Beijing, said the reform was an important part of China’s long-term military overhaul and it had learned from more advanced systems in the West, such as the United States. “Soldiers should have skills assessments, and different positions have different requirements … The US military is very clear that soldiers and officers have their own professional codes which shows what skills you [must] have for future promotion and deployment,” he said. “In China, the system including the resumes and assessment, is more sound for officers but worse for soldiers. Through the reforms, soldiers could have a clearer career plan. “The reform of soldiers is very important, which shows the reform has reached a deeper level, which will have far-reaching implications for decades to come.” The reform has been under way and being explored since 2019, but its enforcement came at a moment of more intensified international tensions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and the continued tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Zhou said the reform was not eyeing such conflicts and tensions, but the reform of the military and soldiers would raise the combat skills as a whole.