RedMercury
Junior Member
Honestly if anyone here knew the answers, they wouldn't be here. You're asking questions which are likely not in the public domain.
Ordinary PLA infantrymen
- Thread starter green beret
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Not exactly. Crobato is one of our resident PLA experts, and assures me that much information exists (from PLA professional sources no less) that are accessible to the public. He suggested to me that they could be found ,amongst others, at US Army and Navy colleges (I have recently accessed on-line two articles on unrelated matter from the US Army Command and Gernal Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and also the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks). Crobato also told me that a number of articles and mposts on CDF exist as well. I listen to him - he's in the know.
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Ok..could someone please explain the reason this keeps popping up? Roger I believe you..So does the PLA have recruiting drives like western militaries?? What is the term of service? Any information is appericated. Thanks!
Roger604
Senior Member
Why does this keep popping up? Because people associate the PLA with large numbers of poorly trained and equipped infantry.
Anyway, there is no mandatory conscription in China. Or else you'd have a 20 million people army or something!
We discussed this years ago. The only mandatory program is army training for high school students. Apparently, it's not so hard to find people willing to join because the military is a better livelihood than working as a subsistence farmer. Once you get to the officer level and weapons engineering level they recruit very aggressively from the top universities. For example Harbin Technical Institute (or something like that) is a civilian university with close military ties.
Anyway, there is no mandatory conscription in China. Or else you'd have a 20 million people army or something!
We discussed this years ago. The only mandatory program is army training for high school students. Apparently, it's not so hard to find people willing to join because the military is a better livelihood than working as a subsistence farmer. Once you get to the officer level and weapons engineering level they recruit very aggressively from the top universities. For example Harbin Technical Institute (or something like that) is a civilian university with close military ties.
I thought the term of service was 2 years. Having lived in China for 10 years, both in the country and in the city, I've never heard of such a thing as recruit drive. But I assume that the military does some kind of recruiting in universities and colleges, because PLA needs more professional troops, rather than farmers.
Norfolk, I am just steering you at the general direction for information. I don't know if they can specifically answer your questions and I am not aware what your questions are exactly and what sort of specific information you are looking for. I cannot assure you that you will have all the answers you need, especially when we don't know what the questions are. Some information may turn out to be available, others may not.
Back in the civil war and the Korean war, individual and squad initiative are very much what the PLA and PVA needed in view of a lack of a real time comprehensive central command structure. So the problem mostly is in coordination from a higher level, as units will do things the other does not know. Also at that time, the PVA (as it was called for those elements engaging in the Korean War), were heavily dependent on captured arms from Imperial Japanese and Kuomingtang forces, so they don't exactly have the luxury of even having the optimal equipment. Let's just say they're not exactly in the position to choose their arms. This results in many times that squads don't have sufficient guns or even sufficient ammo. The Soviet Union was supposed to help supply the PVA, but China was not certainly satisfied with the SU's assistance on that matter, and this started the long road that would eventually have the two Communist partners splitting a decade later. Without a regular supply of arms, the PVA squads would have also have to depend on improvising.
Back in the civil war and the Korean war, individual and squad initiative are very much what the PLA and PVA needed in view of a lack of a real time comprehensive central command structure. So the problem mostly is in coordination from a higher level, as units will do things the other does not know. Also at that time, the PVA (as it was called for those elements engaging in the Korean War), were heavily dependent on captured arms from Imperial Japanese and Kuomingtang forces, so they don't exactly have the luxury of even having the optimal equipment. Let's just say they're not exactly in the position to choose their arms. This results in many times that squads don't have sufficient guns or even sufficient ammo. The Soviet Union was supposed to help supply the PVA, but China was not certainly satisfied with the SU's assistance on that matter, and this started the long road that would eventually have the two Communist partners splitting a decade later. Without a regular supply of arms, the PVA squads would have also have to depend on improvising.
PLA is currently all voluntary right now. Even then they have to turn some of the volunteers. They are downsizing you know, and cannot afford all the volunteers, especially when you are getting these volunteers from a 1.2 billion population base. They're looking more of the educated, so the countryside peasant boys maybe more of a disadvantage compared to the educated city people that graduated high school or college. By doing so, their makeup also changes from that of a peasant army to an educated one.
Modern conscript armies tend to happen more in places with more limited populations or those that perceived themselves to be outnumbered and surrounded by enemies. But these armies, like Israel's and Singapore's, are also very capable and professional.
Modern conscript armies tend to happen more in places with more limited populations or those that perceived themselves to be outnumbered and surrounded by enemies. But these armies, like Israel's and Singapore's, are also very capable and professional.
For those who can't get the info from the link posted on the PLa Marines thread Post #14, try this:
Click on the link anyway, it'll take you to the RAND Search Page. Then either type in "People's Liberation Army Navy Marines" for the PLAN article called
"The Organization of the People's Liberation Army Navy" by Bernard D. Cole. Although this article is specifically about the Navy, it does go into some dteail about the Marines, and much of this is applicable or at least sheds some light on the PLA Infantry.
For a much more specific RAND articles on the PLA, do the same thing as for the first article (even keeping the words "Navy Marines" in addition to PLA in your search will work) and look forthe PLA article called "PLA Ground Forces: Moving Towards a Smaller, More Rapidly Deployable, Modern Combined Armed force", by Dennis J. Blasko. However, for insights on the recruitment and training of PLA infantry, I would advise the first article, on the PLAN Marines, as much of what is descibed for them is also more specific to the regular PLA infantry.
Click on the link anyway, it'll take you to the RAND Search Page. Then either type in "People's Liberation Army Navy Marines" for the PLAN article called
"The Organization of the People's Liberation Army Navy" by Bernard D. Cole. Although this article is specifically about the Navy, it does go into some dteail about the Marines, and much of this is applicable or at least sheds some light on the PLA Infantry.
For a much more specific RAND articles on the PLA, do the same thing as for the first article (even keeping the words "Navy Marines" in addition to PLA in your search will work) and look forthe PLA article called "PLA Ground Forces: Moving Towards a Smaller, More Rapidly Deployable, Modern Combined Armed force", by Dennis J. Blasko. However, for insights on the recruitment and training of PLA infantry, I would advise the first article, on the PLAN Marines, as much of what is descibed for them is also more specific to the regular PLA infantry.
Am not saying you're right or wrong. But to make it more accurate, don't you think we should take into account the average pay for each soldiers? Assuming an infantry in Army gets $1k, an infantry in PLA gets Yuan1k. What are the exchange rate between Yuan and US$?
my 2 cents