hehe, no i don't know A lot comparing to my forum's army guys, i learn a lot from them. these things i am talking about is just common knowledge for a chinese military fan, it's just like a US military fan should have the recruiting knowledge about US force.
i am not sure how long they serve now, i need to ask my friends, i think it's 2 years now, because they changed the deal, it used to be 3 years, now you go into the army as a private and promote to second class private (or some may refer as corporal, but corpral was actually the third class), then you will be promoted to first class tech sergant (which equals to old corporal class) right before you got retired, because it will get you a better job position in local, it's the tradition to promote one class higher rank right before your retirement.
there is something you should understand, in china, people WANT to join the army, so you don't really sign a "contract", it's your duty to serve in the army. which i found it strange when i first came to canada, and i see canadian soldiers SIGN a contract when they go into the army.....
normal people stay in service for 2 years, if you want to stay, you need to get promoted to tech sergant, there are 6 classes. And after you got onto a certainly level, i think it's about....3rd class, you could apply for military school, but i heard now they stopped doing that, because of the diploma thing.....talking about conscripts, huh, that's a good question, because, as i said chinese people WANT to go to army, people bribe the recruiting officer to get their children into the army, because obviously, some of the peole are not qualified. many are too young, i know people go into army at age of 14, many have not finished even primary school, this happens mostly to people in the rural, but still, many soldiers are not finished with high school. Speaking of that, back 20 years ago, soldiers are mostly considered as very good people, the army is a great job choice, militaryman is the model. only the best young people could join the army, today.......that's one of the thing we worry about the most, and the army's relationship with the civilians are not good anymore, as soldiers do bad things outside of the barracks. So, mostly, there is almost no conscriptions now.
i am a militaria fan...........
yes i am chinese, but i live in canada, came here since i was 14, 6 years ago.
