Military Service and Life Chances in Contemporary China

Abstract:

Military service as a turning point that redirects life trajectories has long been recognized in U.S. literature, but it has not been systematically studied in China. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study examines the returns to military service on extensive social outcomes, including tertiary education, marriage, Party membership, income, housing, and occupational status. The study not only compares the outcome differences between male veterans and a matched sample of male nonveterans, but also analyzes variation in military effect across social origin, historical period, life cycle, and service status. The findings show that military service is an important channel for men’s upward mobility in China, but its effect is contingent on when the service occurs, how long the service lasts, and which outcome is under examination.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Yu Xie, Tony Tam, Yuying Tong, Xiaogang Wu, Lei Jin, and Jun Li for their comments and suggestions. Editorial assistance was provided by N.E. Barr and Cindy Glovinsky.

Notes

The absolute leadership of the Party over the PLA has been written into the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party.

These benefits are specified in the Conscription Law (1955 and 1984), Regulations on Pension and Preferential Treatments for Servicemen (1998 and 2004), and Regulations on the Resettlement of Veterans (2011).

Wang fails to use an interaction term between military service and historical period to test whether there is a decline in the veteran effect over periods. He wrongly takes the main effect of period on outcome variables to be the interaction effect between period and veteran status.

See section 55 in the Conscription Law of 1984.

The normal service period for air troop and navy was four to five years. Since ground force accounts for the majority of the military, a three-year threshold is used.

An exact minimum of schooling for enlistment is not specified by Regulations on Military Recruitment (1985 and 2001), but the Regulation requires that enlistees should be “well-educated” (wen hua cheng du gao). According to the website for conscription (www.gfbzb.gov.cn/bydj/), the minimum education requirement for prospective enlistees in 2014 is graduation from senior high school or its equivalents.

Physical examination is required by Regulations on Military Recruitment (1985 and 2011). The contents of physical examination are specified in the Physical Examination Standard for Drafted Citizens, including the evaluation of height, weight, eyesight, skin, teeth, and medical history.

For details, see Regulation on Political Screening for Military Recruitment (2004).

Family class background refers to the class of a family defined by the government during the Cultural Revolution. The family class was further divided into three types: red class (including revolutionary cadres, revolutionary martyrs, revolutionary soldiers, workers, and poor and lower-middle peasants), black class (including landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, criminals, rightists, intellectuals, and other bourgeoisie), and medium class (including clerks, tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and other non-agricultural occupations). Also see Walder and Hu (2009).

The wars that involved China after the Korean War in 1953 were the Sino-Indian War (1959–1962), the Zhenbaodao War with the Soviet Union (or Sino-Soviet border clash) (1969), and the Sino-Vietnamese War (1977–1988). These wars were mainly border clashes.

Additional information

About the Author

Chunni Zhang is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, Peking University. Professor Zhang received a B.A. from Sun Yat-sen University (2007), an M.A. from Peking University (2010), and a Ph.D. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2013), all in sociology. Her research interests include life course and social stratification and rural-urban migration in China.