Employees of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), a giant state-owned lender, typically wear suits. But some are now falling into battle fatigue. On April 19, an ICBC chapter in western Qinghai province said it had placed some of its staff in a part-time militia. In addition to uniforms, they have training facilities, a 'command center' and a storage facility for military equipment. ICBC wants to “dedicate its strength to national defense,” the department's manager told local media.
China has long used militias, known as People's Armed Forces Departments, to supplement the People's Liberation Army. During Mao Zedong's reign, local governments recruited militia members across China and provided them with basic training and weapons. They were expected to help resist an invasion. But after Mao died in 1976, China began to worry less about such threats. The size of militia forces shrank from more than thirty million members to eight million in 2011, the last year for which official data exists.
However, last year China began promoting militias again. Army officers have carried out surprise inspections of old militias held by local governments to check their compliance. Officials have encouraged companies to recruit new militias as well. Dozens of companies across China, both state-owned and private, have already done this. In addition to banks, these include project developers, dairy producers and utilities.
Initially, “companies were not very enthusiastic about forming militias,” an official in Jiangxi province told local media. “They feared this would slow production and hurt revenues.” So, he explained, the local government has sweetened the deal by offering companies cheaper loans or better access to sovereign wealth funds. Now companies see militias as a “win-win” for both them and the government, he said.
Militia members have a range of official duties. Regulations require them to “serve in times of peace” by helping recruit for the regular army, providing relief after natural disasters and raising public awareness of national security. Some have helped impose China's Covid-19 controls, according to local media Others are visiting university campuses and giving students a taste of military training. Militia members could also “fight in times of war.” But with only limited training they wouldn't be much help in a fight, says Neil Thomas of the Asia Society, a think tank in America.
Internal threats, not external ones, are driving the push to add militias, Thomas argues. Better educated men give authorities “greater capacity to manage social instability in an era of slowing growth,” he says. The Chinese economy is going through a difficult period. A real estate crisis has sapped the savings of millions of Chinese. Many young people are unemployed and disillusioned China Labor Bulletin, an NGO in Hong Kong, counted nearly 1,800 worker protests last year, more than double the number in 2022.
Militias can also help the government deal with disgruntled veterans by giving them something to do, says James Char of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Demobilized soldiers in China often feel that the government has abandoned them. Their protests are generally well organized and arouse public sympathy. So companies are asked to “absorb” unemployed veterans by paying them to train their militia members.
For many ordinary Chinese, the government's renewed focus on militias is confusing. “It's weird, is Xining unstable?” one online commenter asked, referring to ICBC's new militia and the city in which it is based. “Are the police and private security companies not enough?” asked another. Apparently not for the Communist Party, which has long believed that “stability is of the utmost importance.”
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