I don't think any PLA wear it, not even elite forces. We have very rarely seen them with ballistic vests. The only ones I have personally seen are those active special ops fighting drug cartels in the SouthWestern border. The rest are SWAT branches of the paramilitary police, which are not even part of the PLA.
---------- Post added at 12:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------
Body armor is only useful if you're facing insurgents with mostly small arms. Against artillery and heavy machine guns, they're more of a hindrance than a help.
I agree with the latter part. But the funny thing is that in modern warfare, more people are killed from shock-waves and shrapnel than bullets themselves. Large caliber rifle rounds' invincibility against ballistic vests only exist in CQB, usually within 50m distance. But in the open planes, where bullets usually fly more than 300-500 meters, bullets lose their kinetic energy and can barely even penetrate low level ballistic vests.
I think the rumor against ballistic vests' incompetence against large rifle rounds existed a long time ago. But back then vests had very bad R&D, they were very different from today's standards. Modern NATO ballistic vests, especially those Type IV vests, can even stop the 10.8 g (166 gr) .30-06 Springfield M2 armor-piercing (AP) bullets at a velocity of 878 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (2880 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) (quoted from Wiki). Those bullets are comparable, even surpassing some standard AK rounds.
The bottom-line is that NATO troops are constantly fighting a war, they are very experienced in what they do. If they insisted on forcing their front line troops to wear those cumbersome vests, there must be a reason for it. US military is famous for learning while fighting, their equipment constantly get revised and updated, depending on the needs in the battlefield. I do agree with your idea, which big ballistic vests are cumbersome. But soldiers' lives are now more important than ever, that's why the thickness and weight of the NATO vests are ever-increasing. All NATO soldiers nowadays wear so much protection, that they all look like they have obesity.
This is one of the major reason why even when fighting in CQB, NATO soldiers still have close-to-zero casualty rate. Up to this day, NATO casualties are still mostly random bombs and snipers. I don't recall any casualties from head-on combats, especially those from gunshots (I'm sure there are, but probably super low).
---------- Post added at 01:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 PM ----------
I don't understand why the PLA isn't willing to spend the money. Even the new uniforms probably cost at least few hundred US dollars to buy. A typical Type IV vest is around 2000 - 3000 dollars, probably even cheaper in China, around $1500. Their other gears probably costs much more than a ballistic vest.
Even if a million set of those are purchased, the total cost is still only $1.5 billion, which is nothing compared to China's annual military budget. But in the event of a border clash, these ballistic vests can easily save a lot of soldiers' lives. Compared to the compensation to dead soldiers' families, ballistic vests are a lot cheaper.