The companies’ armed forces departments operate in cooperation with the Chinese army. There were many similar departments in the 1950s and 1970s.
BEIJING Growing unemployment, frustrated bachelors left without a spouse, the danger of conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
There is a new kind of uncertainty in Chinese society that worries both citizens and companies.
Now at least 16 large Chinese companies have adopted the method known from Chinese history. They have established their own security forces.
Tells about it US media CNN based on his report.
These paramilitary units are called people’s armed forces departments. They operate in cooperation with the Chinese Defense Forces, i.e. the People’s Liberation Army, and partly under their authority.
The forces consist of civilians who have received weapons training, like the US National Guard. They are responsible for the safety of their companies, but in addition they help the authorities in organizational control and, for example, in various rescue tasks.
At most 220 million members
China’s defense forces consist of the armed forces of professional soldiers and the country’s internal security units. Volunteer armed forces departments work with all of them.
Only a few armed forces departments have been established so far, but they are very interesting in the light of Chinese history. The Chinese Communist Party has used similar departments since the 1920s, both in wars and to tame sentiments at home.
Armed forces departments were established especially during the Second World War, which raises questions in the current political situation. In recent months, China has constantly had small skirmishes and near-misses in the South China Sea with the armed forces of Taiwan, the Philippines, and the United States.
Mao Zedong’s during the reign of 1949–1976, the departments were expanded to educational institutions and workplaces throughout China. At most, they included an estimated 220 million Chinese.
Mao considered them crucially important for taming the threat posed by “imperialist forces†such as the United States.
After Mao’s death, the popularity of the troops began to decline. According to CNN, in 2011, around 11 million Chinese served in them.
It seems that China is now at such a stage in its development that armed forces departments may be needed again.
Youth unemployment a new problem
China’s economy grew last year 5.2 percent. The end result was better than the expectations of many experts, but disappointing for the Chinese, who are used to wild growth figures.
China’s economy has structural problems. The real estate sector, which is vital to the economy, has been in a slump for the last couple of years after overheating.
In China, children’s university education has also been seen as old-age insurance for parents, but nowadays it is no longer so. Last summer, youth unemployment rose to as high as 21.3 percent, after which the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics stopped regularly publishing unemployment figures.
Uncertainty makes citizens nervous. According to the Hong Kong-based civic organization China Labor Bulletin, the number of strikes, stoppages and other demonstrations at workplaces has increased.
The news threshold was crossed last year, for example, by the riots that broke out at the iPhone factory in Zhengzhou. They arose when the Foxconn company enticed employees to return to the workplace from corona isolation, but failed to deliver on its promise of excessive compensation.
The number of pensioners is increasing drastically
The danger of different expressions of opinion can also be increased by China’s population structure. The one-child policy that was in force between 1979 and 2016 has shaken it up quite a bit. In recent years, the birth rate has remained one of the lowest in the world.
About 13 percent of China’s population of 1.4 billion people are over 65 years old. The share is expected to rise to more than 20 percent by 2035 and to around 30 percent by 2050. Hundreds of millions of pensioners cause challenges that China’s current system is not prepared for.
The result of the one-child policy is also the fact that there are at least 30 million more adult men than women in China. Frustrated Chinese who remain bachelors are feared to cause unrest.