As it happens annually, the work to arrange retired rank-and-file soldiers in 2003 will begin soon. This year, quite a lot of soldiers will be freed from active military service before completing their service terms, according to the notice on this winter’s soldier retirement work issued by the State Council and the Central Military Commission.

The notice stipulates that some of compulsory servicemen and noncommissioned officers are allowed to be freed from active military service before completing their service terms in the need of the armed forces’ streamlining; units under serious streamlining pressure should arrange those to-be-released soldiers and officers to leave the troops ahead of schedule; dismantled units or units having been reorganized into reserve units should transfer their to-be-discharged officers to relevant local departments for arrangement ahead of time, said a top official in charge of retirement work from the Headquarters of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

According to the official, streamlining and reorganizing of the military forces will start in full swing at the end of this year in accordance with unified deployment plans of the Central Military Commission. The target is to reduce 200,000 servicemen in total before 2005. The majority of redundant soldiers will be released from active service, including those who haven’t completed their service terms. The Four Headquarters of the PLA (namely the Headquarters of the General Staff, the General Political Department, the General Logistics Department and the General Armament Department) have worked out detailed arrangements for this work.

Professional technique top-notches, badly-needed backbone technicians, and noncommissioned officers having been trained in military academies for over two years and not having completed 10 years of service term are not qualified to retire ahead of schedule.

Units having no streamlining task should not allow retirement of rank-and-file soldiers whose service terms are not yet completed.

Soldiers to be released before completing their service terms should be treated equally as normally discharged in the arrangement of their resettlements, says the notice.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, November 5, 2003)