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Minnie Chan

Many more wives and children of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in the People's Liberation Army are to be allowed to have family reunions with their husbands in military camps during the Year of the Goat.
Previously this was a benefit enjoyed only by officers and their families.
"The happiness [of family reunions] has come a little bit suddenly," Wang Xingtao, a senior NCO in the 12th Army Group, based in Xuzhou in Jiangsu province, told the PLA Daily.
Wang and his wife were among 34 lucky couples in his brigade to enjoy the unprecedented "family reunion happiness" pilot programme this Lunar New Year holiday, the newspaper said.
Another report in the paper said more than 30 wives of NCOs had also been granted approval to visit their on-duty husbands in the 27th Army Group in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province , during the holiday period.
The moves are the first steps in NCO conscription reforms to offer more benefits to help keep military talents in the army.
They have come amid President Xi Jinping's call for military leaders to come up with innovative measures to boost the army's morale by solving housing problems affecting grass-roots soldiers such as NCOs.
"The pilot family reunion programme might seem nothing for military officials who are entitled to have their dependents with them, but it is a real privilege to us," Benjamin Sun, an NCO in the PLA's Qingdao garrison, told the  Sunday Morning Post.
Sun, who is still hesitating about getting married, said the rate of divorce among military officers was higher than those of their peers outside the garrisons because of the long periods of separation.
"The army has never conducted a survey about the divorce rate of soldiers because it is sensitive … but my superiors and comrades with families told me that short gatherings during special festivals would help them to maintain their relationships with their spouses," he said.
In Wang's garrison, in Xuzhou, a third of the 30 members of his platoon are married, but the military camp has only two apartments for married couples.
To meet the demands of Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, Wang's superiors have tried to transform the garrison's guest house into temporary married quarters.
"I just submitted my application form and told the good news to my wife by phone," another senior NCO told the PLA Daily. "She is very excited and will come to meet me a few days from now."
The PLA has acquired an array of hi-tech weaponry as part of its military modernisation over the past two decades. But the quality of its soldiers has lagged far behind, forcing it to reform its existing compulsory-service system to attract personnel with higher levels of education and skills to support its modernisation.
In 2000, NCOs comprised less than a quarter of the PLA, compared with almost two-thirds of the US Army.
However, Beijing is now seeking to move away from its old, Soviet-style military model and instead become a nimble, knowledge-based fighting force.
To do that, it intends to increase the number of NCOs to 900,000 - almost 40 per cent of the PLA's strength.
All university graduates recruited since 2009 have been eligible to become NCOs.
Since 2008, senior NCOs have also been eligible for housing and retirement benefits previously offered only to regimental commanders. Senior NCOs are entitled to a flat of 72 to 92 square metres in their garrison, which they can share with their families.
The maximum retirement age for NCOs is 55, which means that more senior NCOs will remain in the army for longer.
That means more servicemen will have to live separately from their spouses and children for far longer because even senior NCOs are allowed to go home only once a year.
The Lunar New Year family-reunion programme allows married NCOs to live with their spouses and children after being on duty. This is in addition to the official holiday permitting them to go home to see their families each year.


PLA pilot scheme extends family reunion privileges to non-commissioned officers

Wives and children of PLA non-commissioned officers enjoy a happy family reunion in a military camp to celebrate the Year of the Goat. Photo: PLA Daily

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China

Pilot scheme lets non-commissioned officers welcome wives, children to visit them in camp


Many more wives and children of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in the People's Liberation Army are to be allowed to have family reunions with their husbands in military camps during the Year of the Goat.
