As it happens annually, the work to arrange retired
rank-and-file soldiers in 2003 will begin soon. This year, quite a
lot of soldiers will be freed from active military service before
completing their service terms, according to the notice on this
winter’s soldier retirement work issued by the State Council and
the Central Military Commission.
The notice stipulates that some of compulsory servicemen and
noncommissioned officers are allowed to be freed from active
military service before completing their service terms in the need
of the armed forces’ streamlining; units under serious streamlining
pressure should arrange those to-be-released soldiers and officers
to leave the troops ahead of schedule; dismantled units or units
having been reorganized into reserve units should transfer their
to-be-discharged officers to relevant local departments for
arrangement ahead of time, said a top official in charge of
retirement work from the Headquarters of the General Staff of the
People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
According to the official, streamlining and reorganizing of the
military forces will start in full swing at the end of this year in
accordance with unified deployment plans of the Central Military
Commission. The target is to reduce 200,000 servicemen in total
before 2005. The majority of redundant soldiers will be released
from active service, including those who haven’t completed their
service terms. The Four Headquarters of the PLA (namely the
Headquarters of the General Staff, the General Political
Department, the General Logistics Department and the General
Armament Department) have worked out detailed arrangements for this
work.
Professional technique top-notches, badly-needed backbone
technicians, and noncommissioned officers having been trained in
military academies for over two years and not having completed 10
years of service term are not qualified to retire ahead of
schedule.
Units having no streamlining task should not allow retirement of
rank-and-file soldiers whose service terms are not yet
completed.
Soldiers to be released before completing their service terms
should be treated equally as normally discharged in the arrangement
of their resettlements, says the notice.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, November 5, 2003)