China’s PLA facing talent drain as top graduates shun military service

Felix Kim

The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel to operate and maintain technologically advanced systems could hamper the Chinese Communist Party’s military modernization drive and impede its ambitions to dominate the region, analysts contend. Top graduates are shunning military service in favor of jobs in the more lucrative and less constrained private sector, and the PLA’s reforms to counter recruiting shortages appear to face an uphill battle.

“By their own admission, the [PLA] military continues to struggle to attract and retain educated and skilled people who can use the weapons and equipment,” Dr. Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the Rand Corp., told FORUM. “Shortages in skilled labor could affect the PLA’s ability to carry out sophisticated training alongside other regional powers, which could hurt its influence and prestige.”

The PLA largely relies on volunteers to fill the ranks of its force of 2 million service members. These include about 450,000 officers and civilian personnel, 850,000 noncommissioned officers (NCOs), and 700,000 enlisted troops.

To attract personnel with much-needed technical skills, the PLA has turned to Chinese universities. However, data from Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University show that only 12 of its 8,000 graduates in 2022 joined the PLA, The Economist newspaper reported. Since 2005, the number of Tsinghua graduates enlisting in the PLA has averaged just 16.

China’s 2020 census indicates the PLA is falling short of its 10-year goal of adding 70% more university graduates to its ranks, managing only 57% since 2010.

In addition to lower salaries relative to the private sector, potential recruits often find military life too restrictive, The Economist reported. The PLA, for example, severely limits internet access. To marry or divorce, all staff must obtain permission from their supervisors. Enlisted troops live in barracks, and most officers and NCOs can only live with their spouses after a decade of service.

Meanwhile, turnover is high among active PLA personnel, with incentives to entice recruits — such as educational subsidies and privileged access to state-sector jobs after military service — appearing to have the unintended consequence of motivating them to leave the force at the first opportunity.

“Finding ways to reduce turnover is critical for the PLA to ensure the highest levels of readiness because it takes considerable time to develop a skilled fighting force,” Heath said. “High turnover forces the military to spend much of its time retraining new recruits instead of refining advanced skills.”

The PLA also is struggling with desertion. It got so bad that Beijing launched a media campaign to humiliate the perpetrators and publicize their heavy punishments, The Economist noted.

While the PLA will persist with attempts to stanch the loss of skilled personnel, its growing need to staff a military with a joint warfighting doctrine and increasingly sophisticated technology and weapons makes its job harder, Heath said.

“Technologically advanced militaries need educated, skilled workers but the most eligible youth do not find military service attractive,” he said. “The shortage will constrain the PLA’s ability to ensure combat readiness as units will face shortages in manpower.”

Felix Kim is a FORUM correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea.