China’s New Conscription Rules Reveal Concerns

Article/Op-Ed in Defense One
LEE SNIDER PHOTO IMAGES
June 8, 2023

New America Strategist Peter W. Singer and Thomas Corbett wrote for Defense One on what China's new conscription rules reveal about its military's anxieties.

Recent revisions to the regulations that govern China’s draft highlight some of the military’s deepest insecurities about its own capabilities and people. In April, China’s Central Military Commission announced that it had revised the “Regulations on Conscription Work.” Released by the Xinhua state news agency, the announcement said that the revisions were carried out to implement “Xi Jinping Thought on strengthening the military” and improve the quality of conscripts to the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA. Yet certain changes inadvertently highlight some of the PLA’s deepest insecurities about its own capabilities and people

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