China’s military academies enrol ‘record 17,000 high school graduates’ as youth joblessness soars

Total intake is the highest since 2017 and 2,000 more than last year, official military newspaper PLA Daily reports
Specialisations combining command and technical training introduced to satisfy ‘urgent need for new types of military talent’, report adds

China’s military

Jack Lau

Published: 6:23pm, 22 Aug 2023

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As many as 17,000 high school graduates joined China’s military academies this year, the highest enrolment tally since the completion of reforms in 2017 aimed at training a more modernised armed force.

The total intake – spread across China’s 27 military academies that accept high school graduates – was 2,000 more than last year, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s official newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Almost all places for this cohort had been filled, the PLA Daily report said.

This comes with youth jobless rates also at an all-time high, as China’s post-pandemic economy struggles to recover. More than one in five people aged 16 to 24 and living in urban areas were jobless in June, according to official data.

The Chinese defence ministry said in June that the 2023 intake would be offered a greater variety of subjects to “focus on the development of future wars”.

About 8.2 million Chinese high school students graduated in 2022, the latest figure available from the education ministry.

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Last week, Beijing halted the release of the national monthly youth unemployment data, saying labour force statistics needed to be “further improved and optimised” as society and the economy continue to evolve.

As the academies took in more high school graduates, they enrolled fewer serving military personnel, the defence ministry notice in June said, without providing numbers.

Most of the service members were enrolled for science and engineering-centred places, to focus on “war preparation”, it said.

The PLA Daily said 135,000 high school graduates countrywide had applied for “political inspection”, the first stage of the academies’ screening process requiring them to declare personal details including their religion, ethnicity, family background, travel history and any any criminal records.

More than 50,000 of them then went through the interviews and medical examination processes.

The reforms of 2017 saw some of China’s military academies merged and others renamed, as the leadership sought to streamline the training of troops as well as accommodate wider armed forces reforms, including the launch of a new separate rocket force service branch.

This year’s intake is the first to include specialisations combining command and technical training, to “satisfy the military’s urgent need for new types of military talent in training and war preparation”, the PLA Daily report said.

Medical standards for the 2023 intake were also lowered, to “fully account for changes to the physique of young people”, it said.

The Central Military Commission – China’s top military command, chaired by President Xi Jinping – announced the new standards in March.

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The relaxations included height and weight limits. For instance, women had to be at least 160cm (five feet and three inches) tall for the 2022 intake but the cut-off was lowered to 158cm this year.

Weight requirements were also relaxed – for both men and women.

However, China’s military academies offer far more places for men than for women. Some – such as the PLA Army Academy of Artillery and Air Defence – enrol only men.

In eastern Shandong province, one of the more popular sources of military academy recruits, only 65 places are reserved for women while close to 1,300 are for men.

President Xi has in recent months highlighted “more complex” security challenges faced by China, urging the military to “focus on combat ability” while reemphasising the PLA’s centennial goal – to become a world-class armed force by 2027.

To inspire more high school graduates to join the PLA, the military asked astronaut Liu Yang and Zhu Yuemeng – a naval officer on China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning – to act as spokeswomen for the recruitment drive.

Dong Jun, a pilot on China’s advanced J-20 fighter jet, was also roped in as a spokesman.