China pledges to improve veteran benefits in latest five-year plan

For the first time Beijing has devoted a separate section of its all-encompassing policy document to welfare of ex-military
The plan includes job training improvements, jobs for family members and preferential household registration for their children

Two Sessions 2021 (Lianghui)

Jun Maiin Beijing

Published: 12:00pm, 9 Mar 2021

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China has pledged to improve the welfare and benefits for its military veterans in its latest five-year plan, from 2021-25, amid what it sees as an increasingly hostile international environment.

“[We] must improve the quality of service to our veterans,” read a draft of the 14th five-year plan made public last Friday. “[We] must broaden their employment opportunities and improve the quality of their settlement.”

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The plan also calls for job training improvements, job arrangements for veterans’ family members and preferential household registration for their children.

It is the first time China’s five-year plan – an all-encompassing policy document by the central government – has devoted a separate section to lay out policies and plans for veterans. China also recently passed laws to provide legal mandates for veterans’ benefits and is drafting more.

Zhou Qiang, China‘s top judge, pledged on Monday in his annual report to the National People’s Congress that courts at all levels would step up protection of legal rights for servicemen and their families. He also made public a typical case in which a court in the central province of Hunan helped with a civil case that involved a family member of a soldier stationed in Tibet.

The plan was announced as Beijing sought to boost confidence in the military in what China sees as an increasingly insecure world. Last month, China confirmed it lost four soldiers during a deadly border clash with Indian troops at the Himalayan border in June. And a People’s Liberation Army spokesperson reiterated on Monday that China would not commit to giving up military actions against Taiwan if necessary.

Beijing is also trying to live up to its commitment to provide more troops to the United Nations peacekeeping force. Chinese President Xi Jinping promised in 2015 to create a standby force of 8,000 Chinese peacekeepers, of which about 2,500 are currently on active duty.

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China provides more peacekeeping troops to the global organisation than any other permanent member of the UN Security Council, and is also the second-largest financial contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping efforts.

Despite having the world’s second largest military, China’s policies to support its veterans have long drawn criticism as they often fall between the cracks amid the country’s immense bureaucratic system. There have been mass protests by veterans, which turned violent in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces in 2018.

Beijing only established a veteran affairs ministry in 2018 and the progress of veteran welfare has varied widely between provinces.

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Chongqing’s veteran affairs office said in June last year that it was still trying to conduct surveys to determine the scale of its tasks. The Hainan provincial office made a commitment in April last year that it would make sure the full amount of benefits was paid to veterans under its watch.

Xi has in recent years pledged repeatedly to make soldiers “a profession respected by the entire society”, but has also constantly urged them to “prepare for war”.

In the five-year plan unveiled last Friday, Beijing pledged to let its defence capability improve “at the same pace with economic power” and aimed to take “big steps forward” in military modernisation.