China Could Reduce Youth Unemployment By Recruiting Graduates Into Military - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2023) Increased recruitment of young high school and college graduates into the Chinese armed forces could help reduce the country's extremely high youth unemployment rate and meet the goals of modernizing the People's Liberation Army (PLA), South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Saturday.

Chinese researcher Zhou Chenming told SCMP that the recruitment "would not only help Chinese local authorities to relieve the ongoing employment... The most important task of the PLA is to seize the opportunity to hunt more talent to help the military achieve its ultimate goal of military modernisation."

The newspaper specified that more than 90% of China's military recruits this year could be college graduates and high school students to meet the PLA's modernization goals and reduce the country's record youth unemployment.

"The PLA is now taking a volunteer system. More science and engineering talent joining the army would not only help the army achieve its goal of modernisation, but also pave the way for its future plan of military professionalisation," former PLA instructor Song Zhongping told SCMP.

The military aims to increase its average enlistment rate by 10% from previous years, the newspaper said, citing sources.

More than 11.5 million people will graduate from Chinese universities this year and it is unclear how many will be needed to fill the PLA's ranks, but more than one million young graduates have applied to join the PLA since 2017, the report said.

In March, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said that the registered unemployment rate in China was 5.2% as of May. The unemployment rate for the population aged 16 to 24 and 25 to 59 was 20.8% and 4.1%, respectively.

In 2015, the Chinese authorities announced their intention to significantly reform their armed forces to improve their efficiency. Chinese President Xi Jinping said in 2017 that the modernization of the country's armed forces would be completed by 2035 to fully meet the challenges and demands of the new era, and by 2050, the PLA should become a world-class military force.

The PLA is celebrating its 96th anniversary this year and is currently the largest army in the world, with about 2 million troops. China plans to increase its military budget by 7.2% to 1.55 trillion Yuan ($216 billion) in 2023.