China's one-child policy, implemented now for three decades, is posing a new challenge to the country's military – the PLA is struggling to find new recruits, particularly those with the right attitude..nbsp.
Presently, about 80 percent of PLA military forces are only children. Foreign armies have questioned whether these new-generation soldiers are capable of going to war, a topic that has touched the sensitive nerves of China's army chiefs.
Concerns over troop sources
In China, the base number of young people at military age dropped to a wave trough. And as the only children of post-80s and post-90s families have already replaced the discharged veterans, worries about the only-child effect have increased significantly.
During the NPC and CPPCC sessions in 2011, Major General Tan Wenhu, former commander of the Shandong military region, submitted a proposal about current difficulties in the recruitment of soldiers. This was the first time the problem was mentioned openly.
According to the military newspaper China National Defense in 2006, more than half of Chinese soldiers under the age of 30 were only children. Today, that ratio has risen to above 80 percent.
The U.S. Nixon Center claimed that the only-child generation would weaken the military strength of PLA forces, rendering it incompetent to fight against the U.S. military.
This sounded the alarm for China's national defense. Liu Mingfu, Professor of the National Defense University, said, "The analysis made by the U.S. is biased, and the impact of the one-child policy on the PLA is not as negative as the Western analysts imagined."
To their credit, these only children did not disappoint the older generation when they showed inflexible will and tenacity during the rescue mission of the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.
Nevertheless, the fashion-conscious post-90s continue to create certain difficulties for management and training.
Only children managing only children
The only-child generation generally tends toward selfishness, frailty, social isolation and incapability of independent living.
Many military officers point out that the post-80s and post-90s are among the generations most difficult to manage. Some of them cannot live without mineral water or soda, for example, and some demand air-conditioning in summer. Another popular phenomenon is that they are always using their mobile phones, even under strict prohibition.
Today, many officers themselves are only children, making the process of disciplining young recruits even more challenging.
On the other hand, the new generations are well-educated, good at communication, familiar with computers and quick to learn new skills.
Nevertheless, their shortcomings continue to undermine the process, a subject that managers must consider closely when training new troops.
New era to challenge the army
The impact of the one-child policy on military build-up will only deepen with time. In the next 20 years, the PLA will be an army of only children.
In the new era, many worry that the traditional daredevil military spirit will be challenged by such issues. But it is a reality that the Chinese army must face.
