The South China Morning Post (May 30) disclosed that the gathering pace of the PLA’s modernisation has given its instructors and recruiters the challenge of how to train a newer breed of soldier. It quoted Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Beijing-based Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank, as saying“Military instructors found the strict and dogmatic training modes applied in the last century didn’t work for the more individual young soldiers born in the 21st century. Some even dared to butt against and challenge superiors when they were not happy. The military was forced to adjust. Some military instructors tell me they are still muddling through how to take charge of younger generations.” The PLA Daily said that rather than only orders and scolding, therapy sessions by professional psychotherapists have been brought in since 2011 to ease stress. The PLA report added that, in the past, the military would leave soldiers’ morale and personal well-being to political commissars. Physical fitness has been another tough challenge for the PLA since the military shifted its recruitment targets from peasants’ children to rural youth with a higher education level in 2000, when the military stepped up a massive equipment and weapon systems replacement. After protests by young soldiers against a ban on mobile phones, the army in 2015 lifted the restriction, provided that soldiers installed the army’s anti-spy software that allowed the newly established internet administration centres to closely monitor their activities. The PLA has also started recruiting larger numbers of female soldiers in the past decade with official figures showing that women made up 7 per cent of the PLA’s 2 million troops according to Zhou Chenming. The PLA also set up its first female marine troop, which debuted in the 2017 Zhurihe war game parade. Ni Lexiong, a military expert in Shanghai, said“Male-dominated troops is an outdated concept, and more highly educated soldiers are required, playing keyboards indoors. Modern warfare will focus on artificial intelligence, unmanned aircraft, electronic countermeasures and other confrontations that do not need too much physical strength, allowing more competent women to play a role in the armed forces.”
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