• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

PLAN Quality Of Life- Marriage, Housing and Food

Marriage

Both the national Marriage Law and an additional set of stipulations issued by the General Political Department in late 2001 entitled the "Regulations on Certain Issues Concerning the Military's Implementation of the 'Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China'" govern marriages in the PLAN. Although the legal age for marriage in China is 22 for males and 20 for females, the PLA "advocates and encourages" its servicemen to marry later, at age 25 for males and 23 for females.

Because PLAN conscripts are all younger than the legal marrying age, they are not permitted to marry. Both officers and NCOs, however, may marry provided they are older than the legal marrying age and have the permission of the political organization at the regiment level and above. When a serviceman becomes engaged, he must report the courtship to his unit's Party organization at least one month before the marriage occurs. A political organization at the regiment level or above then begins the background investigation on the intended spouse.

During this investigation, special attention is paid to the prospective spouses of PLAN personnel stationed on naval vessels or who work with classified information. Although the PLAN has the restrictions above, it sometimes sets them aside for older officers and NCOs. Specifically, each year, various PLAN units, including PLAN Headquarters, arrange matchmaking events with local females for single personnel who are over 30 years old.

PLAN spouses must be citizens of the PRC residing on the mainland. Citizens of Hong Kong and Macao are not permitted to marry PLA servicemen. Although not technically illegal, the GPD regulations also state that when a Han Chinese serviceman seeks to marry someone from one of China's many ethnic minority groups, efforts should be made to persuade the couple to abandon their wedding plans.

Generally speaking, NCOs are not permitted to marry within their unit or find a spouse in the vicinity of where they are stationed. This stipulation is probably rooted in the fact that once NCOs are demobilized, they must return home to their home of record where they are officially registered to live from that point forward. One exception to this involves NCOs at the level of grade-3 and above stationed in rural or remote areas. These individuals may marry locally, provided the marriage is approved by the political organization at the division level or higher. Once demobilized, these NCOs are resettled locally with their spouse.

Housing

The housing situation for the PLA Navy is more complex than for the US Navy. In the USN, active duty personnel can live in base housing if it is available, or they can purchase or rent off-base civilian housing and receive a housing allowance to help offset the cost. When USN officers or enlisted personnel retire, they can no longer live in base housing. Regardless of their rank, they must find off-base civilian housing, for which they do not receive a housing allowance.

PLA regulations state that PLA officers must meet four criteria in order to have their family join them: the officer must have 15 years in the service, must have the grade of battalionnleader or above, on-base housing must benavailable, and the unit must find a job for thenspouse. Available schooling for children is alsona consideration. However, these criteria do notnapply to pilots, who can get married and haventheir family join them at any time.

Within the PLAN, on-base housing for married personnel is limited, and PLAN personnel must meet certain grade criteria to be authorized to live in base housing. PLAN regulations either forbid or discourage families from joining their spouses and living in off-base housing when on-base housing is not available. As a result, a high percentage of PLAN officers, especially in non-urban areas, live in cities and towns other than that of their spouse and child. The situation is even more restrictive for married NCOs, who, prior to 1999, had only limited base housing available.

If married PLAN personnel do choose to live in off-base housing due to a lack of available on-base housing, the PLAN does not provide a housing allowance. Therefore, the PLAN discourages them from doing this. This situation is further complicated by China's residency system under which every citizen of the PRC has an official place of residency. Designed to control the movements of the population, citizens who live in a place other than their official home of residency can be denied employment opportunities, housing, health care, and education.

As China has abolished many of the travel restrictions once imposed on its citizens, many spouses have begun to relocate to the vicinity where the military member happens to be stationed to reduce the distance between them. That said, their subsequent inability to find housing and employment opportunities often creates additional complications for both the family and the PLAN. In other instances, however, some spouses have managed to find work off base earning more than their military partner. As of 2007, all unmarried personnel, as well as married officers and NCOs who are not accompanied, live in the barracks.

To help alleviate the problems associated with the lack of permanent housing, the PLAN has spent millions of dollars to build apartment buildings to be used as temporary housing for visiting family members. To allow for a maximum amount of visitors, the PLAN has certain restrictions on how long they can remain in the temporary housing. It also discourages from visiting during certain times of the year, especially when exercises are taking place. For example, PLA regulations state that spouses are allowed to visit once a year, staying in temporary housing for no more than 45 days under normal circumstances.

As the number of married NCOs has increased, the shortage of temporary housing for both officers and NCOs has received more attention from PLAN Headquarters. One reason on-base housing is in short supply is because some senior PLAN officers are allowed to retain their on-base housing after they retire. The PLAN is attempting to alleviate this problem by building subsidized public housing near the base for some active-duty and retired officers, civilian cadre, and NCOs. The type of public housing is allocated based on several criteria, including the person's grade. For example, division-grade officers are limited to apartments with 92 square meters and battalion-grade officers are limited to 54 square meters.

Food

The PLA's regulations state that all divisionleader grade officers (i.e., senior colonels) and below and all enlisted personnel must eat in the mess hall for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from Monday through Friday. Although the mess hall is open on the weekends, personnel can eat elsewhere at their own expense. However, for individuals stationed in isolated areas that lack other meal options, most meals are eaten in the mess hall. Furthermore, because a high percentage of officers are not accompanied by their families, they eat in the mess hall. As shown below, the PLA has four categories of mess halls. All PLAN officers in the grade of jun leader and below and all enlisted personnel receive a monthly food subsidy. Officers above the grade of jun leader do not receive a monthly food subsidy and must pay for their food out of their salary.

PLA meal expenses have increased six times since the early 1990s. At the beginning of 2005, the PLA's meal expense standards were increased by an average of RMB 1.8 (USD 0.22) per person per day, raising the minimum meal expense per soldier to RMB 10 (USD 1.20) per day. The new adjustment of meal expense standards was the largest since the founding of the PRC. The figure below shows the new meal expense standards broken down by the four categories of mess halls in the PLA.

The increase in subsidies has allowed the PLA to provide more nutritional dishes. For example, the latest rise in food subsidies allows soldiers to drink 250 grams of milk at breakfast and eat fruits at both lunch and dinner. Beef, lamb, fish, and other seafood are gradually being integrated into the diets of enlisted personnel, replacing the traditional reliance on pork. This constitutes a substantial change from years past when soldiers often complained about eating the "three same old things," namely, potatoes, radishes, and cabbage. Along with greater variety in the diet, new standards governing the amount of food have also been put in place.

In units where the technology exists, personnel are given a debit card to use in the mess hall. Otherwise, the amount is deducted from a ration card. The mess hall receives a maximum amount for each person per meal. However, the amount deducted from the debit or ration card is not a set amount but is based on a separate deduction for each item. Personnel who travel for temporary duty may receive an additional amount on their ration card. Members select the food and beverage they wish to consume and present their card to a cashier who deducts this amount from the balance remaining on the debit card. These debit cards were first introduced in units in the Beijing MR in 2003. Embedded in each card is a computer chip that contains basic information on the individual and can also be used by servicemen to receive their salary or allowance and obtain medical care and other services.

Much of the food consumed in the PLA is produced by the military itself. During the 9th Five-Year Plan (1996-2000), for example, the PLA produced a total of 3.4 billion kilograms of grain, 3.2 billion kilograms of fresh vegetables, and 1.3 billion kilograms of meat, fish, and eggs. Moreover, in the majority of companylevel units, at least 70% of the meat and vegetables consumed were provided by the unit.

Most of the PLA's farms were created during the 1960s and 1970s and were consolidated into a single system in 1988. PLAN statistics show that 50% of the Naval Aviation units provide all of their own food, 60% of PLAN ground service units provide 72% of their own food, and 28% of surface and subsurface forces provide 28% of their own food. Many PLAN coastal defense, radar, and observation sites are isolated on islands or mountains. Supplies such as fuel, food, water, and blankets are difficult to receive on a routine basis, especially during winter. However, the food situation is gradually improving in many of these hardship posts. For example, in the remote Spratly Islands, units have installed new refrigerators, are raising livestock, and are shipping in soil from the mainland to grow vegetables. Many units have combated the lack of drinking water on the reefs by building fresh-water storage ponds to ensure supply for several months.

Providing water for some naval vessels, especially smaller vessels such as speedboats, has also been a challenge. Several methods have been employed, including boiling the water in the same woks used to cook meals, using automated electromagnetic hot-water machines, and providing barrels of fresh water to each vessel.