Chinese military targets graduate recruits

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WANG: n 2008, China spent 85 billion US dollars on its 2 million strong military force - the People's Liberation Army.
The huge expenditure makes China the second biggest military spender in the world, after the United States. State of art jetfighters and warships were purchased to boost China's arsenal and the country is planning to build its first aircraft carriers. But the PLA is not content on hardware upgrade only; they are investing in upgrading military software and the skills of personnel. State-owned Xinhua news agency reports that in its biggest ever intake, the PLA will recruit more than a hundred and twenty thousand university graduates this year.

RAHMAN: Its increasingly as the Navy, the Airforce become more advanced, then they need just like western militaries people with a high level of technical skill.

WANG: Dr Chris Rahman is a Defence Expert at the University of Wollongong. He says while the overall number of Chinese military dropped over the year, its capability has increased.

RAHMAN: The PLA numbers have declined quite a lot, quite large numbers of ground forces have been reduced, an extra 100 to 200 thousand personnel in the last 2 or 3 years, so I think the push for more graduates is primarily to increase the quality of people and the types of skills that they have in the PLA.

WANG:The Chinese army is no longer satisfied with rural junior high school graduates and unemployed high school leavers, which has been the military's backbone for decades. In autumn last year, The PLA raised the entry level requirements for its new soldiers and is now actively seeking university graduates.
During the Global economic crisis, the Chinese military went out and appealed to university students in a manner that was never seen before. Army career booths were set up in prestigious universities around the country - similar to those of ordinary businesses. Attractive incentives have also been offered. University Graduates recruited by the PLA will receive an outright payment of up to 24,000 Yuan, or 4000 US dollars. One Beijing graduate has told
RAHMAN: Going back to the mid to late 1990s, the PLA airforce never trained over water but from the late 90's and early part of this century newer parts of the PLA airforce are now training for maritime operations, including strike operations and anti-shipping operations which was never part of the agreement in the old PLA, certainly their training has become a lot more sophisticated.