China's army begins first civilian personnel recruitment

Beijing, Mar 9: China's military has conducted the first national civilian recruitment drive after the world's largest army formed its general command late last year, a media report said today.

The 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) initiated the recruitment last month, first after its general command was formed to deepen the military reform, the PLA Daily reported.

More than 300 candidates have been selected so far through written tests and interviews and are waiting for further examinations.

Among the 800 interviewed participants, 45 per cent had a graduate degree or above and 32 per cent graduated from key national universities and colleges, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the recruitment authority, the army has taken advantage of information technology to ensure an open and fair examination.

A computer programme designed to choose interviewers and assign questions from databases at random has been used in interviews. China has embarked on a path to build a strong, modern army.

The country elevated the status of its strategic nuclear missile forces of the army, navy and air force and formed a new force to provide electronic and cyber intelligence backup for precision missile strikes in war early this year.

President Xi Jinping, who is also the Communist Party chief and commander-in- chief of the PLA, announced a three lakh troop cut last year in an effort to build slimmer but stronger military which operates with the annual defence budget of USD 145 billion, the second highest after the US.

China has the world's largest active-duty military, including 850,000 ground forces, according to a government paper published in 2013.

PTI