EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is currently facing challenges in increasing the professionalism of its personnel, especially its non-commissioned officer (NCO) corps. IOT meet demands the PLAN has launched numerous propaganda campaigns, started recruiting graduates with technical degrees, and increased incentives.

INTRODUCTION

Despite efforts to reform, one of the PLAN’s major challenges has been increasing the professionalism of its personnel by improving the quality of its recruits, focusing on NCOs

The need to recruit better-educated NCOs will significantly help the PLAN further develop its blue water navy by:

• Increasing the NCO-to-conscript ratio
• Reducing the officer-to-enlisted-NCO member ratio (currently a 1:1:1 ratio)
• Reforming the military education system (to train conscripts and volunteers into NCO)
• Having personnel capable of operating technologically sophisticated equipment

SITUATION      

2/3 of conscripted/enlisted personnel are poorly educated and come from rural environments making it challenging to instruct them on technical skills. The few who do attend NCO schools only graduate with a two-year secondary technical or three-year senior technical degree, making the institutions inadequate for educating enlisted personnel on operating the increasingly modern equipment of the PLAN.

To address the issue, the PLAN has recurred to recruit university graduates with technical degrees. Demand for engineering, technology, and science graduates degrees has also risen in the private sector, so most graduates choose to join private companies with better-paid employment opportunities.

Most graduates join the PLAN as officers rather than NCM/NCO for better compensation. In addition, most NCOs come from the two-year conscript pool leaving well-educated and technically skilled NCOs comparatively scarce. In 2009 the PLAN attempted to shift from primarily two-year conscription enlisted force to a volunteer force consisting of about 1/3 civilian college/university graduates. To meet these demands, the PLAN has produced films and TV shows to engage its desired target recruits.

Some examples include the propaganda blockbusters such as OP RED SEA (2018), DEEP WATER FORCES (2017), SKY HUNTER (2017), and OP MEKONG (2016), which have been produced in part by military-owned production companies like THE CHINA POLY GROUP, POLYBONA FILM (BONA film group) and the PLAN GOV TV ART CENTRAL OF CHINA.

It is still unknown how much the pandemic has impacted their post-pandemic recruitment efforts.

ASSESSMENT

It is assessed the PLAN will not be able to meet its recruitment quotes in the short term. It's UNLIKELY the military will be able to compete with the private sector’s wages when recruiting university graduates; furthermore, conscripting graduates will only allow them to retain them for two years, enough time to train them without guaranteed reenlistment.

To man its warships with enough trained personnel, the PLAN must reform its naval colleges and schools IOT train a more educated officer and NCO force. Some of these reforms will require decades to be fully implemented.

END OF REPORT

Sources:

• Global Security org, Chinese Navy modernization.
• US Naval war college, China Maritime Studies Institute.
• US Naval Institute, Chinese Navy Trains and Takes Risks.
• Jane’s, PLAN’s personnel.
• Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), People's Republic of China.
• US Naval war college, The Recruitment, Education, and Training of PLA Navy Personnel.
• China Poly Group, about us.
• Small Wars Journal, China’s Conscription Cycle: Challenges, Vulnerabilities And Opportunities

Images Credit: Public domain