There's a tug-of-war occurring on Weibo today surrounding a post originally forwarded 20,000 times before being deleted by censors. That post has since been re-uploaded by numerous other accounts and is now once again being forwarded en masse. In the post are four pictures showing PLA soldiers occupying a large section of the Tianjin Train Station (including numerous empty seats), along with text arguing that soldiers should serve the people and not be "seat hoggers." more ›

A few links to start off your day: more ›

Video has surfaced of a PLA General revealing information to an assembled audience on specific cases of espionage, in a frank and straightforward manner that one would expect in a private conversation taking place in a dark parking lot. Major General Jin Yinan (金一南), currently the academic head of the Strategy Institute at National Defense University in Beijing, revealed that the government will often give secret sentences to spies, or accuse them having 'economic' or 'financial' issues in the media, obfuscating the truth behind their treasonous acts in order to save face. more ›

In our ongoing Threesday feature, Shanghaiist takes the time to count out three of well... whatever catches their fancy that week. This week: Three costume ideas to get your communism on for our Shanghaiist Communist Party Party tomorrow! more ›

Hey, newly-graduated and jobless fenqing! Proving how much you love the motherland now sounds mighty tempting, doesn't it? "The People's Liberation Army (PLA) plans to recruit more well-educated young people and pledges to increase servicemen's income, according to a draft amendment to the country's military recruitment law. The amendment, which is up for review at the 11th National People's Congress Standing Committee, removes an article saying full-time students can postpone their service in the army. It also raises the maximum age for recruitment of college graduates to 24, stating that college graduate recruits with outstanding performance in the army may be directly promoted to officer posts. The date for recruitment registration is also expected to be shifted from the current Sept 30 to June 30 in order to facilitate those who want to join the army before they go to university or after their graduation. It also pledges to increase the attractiveness of being a serviceman, proposing that salaries should be adjusted in sync with economic growth and the government should introduce military insurance." [China Daily] more ›

….And the ban hammer has been dropped! China’s Central Military Commission has just announced a list of “70 forbiddens” to “strengthen and improve ideology among armed service men and to further standardize honest behavior within the military” This list isn’t just for military personnel though, party cadres and government officials are also being urged (forced?) to develop a “clean and honest” government using these “70 forbiddens” as guidelines. more ›

I've been a little wary about reporting on the whole Red Army meme, mostly because it's super old - at least since last year, the musical version of this Red Army Long March opera has been cut and recut to match everything from Jay Chou to Michael Jackson. But you know what? Everyone in the world seems to be watching it, loving it and debating what it means for China's youth to treat this kind of opera in this way. more ›

Things just got a little lonelier in the PLA. After an order banning soldiers from blogging or creating websites was passed a few weeks ago, soldiers are now also forbidden from virtual job hunts, accessing social networking sites or taking advantage of one of the internet's finest amenities: online dating. more ›

Did you know the People's Liberation Army might no longer actually the People's Liberation Army? Apparently, with little fanfare or an official announcement, the PLA has now turned into... the Chinese Army, according to Strategy Page. Same with the PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy) and the PLAAF (People's Liberation Army Air Force). We can't verify this news anywhere else, and it looks like, at least last week, China Daily was still calling the PLAAF PLAAF, but what would it mean to have something like this happen? more ›

It looks like those female army officers goosestepping in hot pink miniskirts at the 60th Anniversary bash were a sign of things to come. As always seems to be the case with gender equality in China, the PLA's recent step forward (the country's first female fighter pilots) was just preparation to take two steps back. Witness: women trying to enter the army now must prove that they have "talents." more ›

2012, the new apocalyptic movie by director Roland Emmerich, opened this weekend in Shanghai to smashing box office records, showing that Hollywood's discovered at least one way its blockbusters can make a killing in China - by pandering to the Chinese. more ›

• Chinese Army opens (small) window on operations [CSMonitor] "Foreign reporters this week got a rare peek inside an infantry base of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). At the same time, officials were reportedly putting the final touches to a bilingual PLA website that is due to go live on Aug. 1, the 82nd anniversary of its foundation. Taken together, these efforts are designed to signal greater transparency by a 2.3 million-strong military whose rapid expansion has stirred unease among other foreign powers, including Japan and the United States. But these baby steps seem unlikely to silence the debate over China's military capacity and how it intends to use it in future."
• Hidden Gobi Desert relics found [BBC] "Rare Buddhist treasures, not seen for more than 70 years, have been unearthed in the Gobi Desert. The historic artefacts were buried in the 1930s during Mongolia's Communist purge, when hundreds of monasteries were looted and destroyed."
• The last tattooed women of the Dulong people [China News Wrap] "The Xinhua News Agency website has a headline photo story about the the last women of the Dulong people in China’s Yunnan province - one of China’s smallest and remote ethnic groups - to have traditional facial tattoos. According to the news story, the custom of facial-tattooing amongst China’s Dulong ethnic group is first described in historical records from the Tang Dynasty (7th to 10th centuries C.E.)."

• China to recruit 120,000 college graduates to join the army in 2009 [People's Daily Online] "The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China will recruit more than 120,000 college graduates this year, a military source said here Sunday. According to a website run by the Ministry of Education to help college graduates find jobs, it is the first time the PLA has recruited college graduates on such a large scale, as the army seeks to improve its overall quality by drawing more talent and advancing its science and technology."
• Building of dams goes on despite halt order [SCMP] Construction had continued on two highly controversial hydro dams on the Yangtze River in Yunnan province , despite orders from the mainland's top environmental watchdog for the projects to be abandoned, state television reports. The two dams are being built by power giants China Huaneng Group and China Huadian Group, which together produced a fifth of the mainland's electricity last year.
• Peking Opera troupes take bold steps to be profitable [China Daily] "The China National Peking Opera Company, China's top operatic troupe, entrusted Beijing Guoyishengping Culture Development Co, Ltd to manage the theater and make it commercially viable one and a half years ago. Zhang Delin and his wife Yu, a famous BTV anchorwoman, own the Beijing Guoyishengping. That move marked a turnaround for the State-owned firm used to government funding to run its operations. An opera ticket at the theater is priced between 2,080 yuan to 50 yuan."

Highly controversial (and tit-tilating) art works from 53 year old Beijing-born painter Hu Ming (呼鸣). Hu's parents were military doctors who had always hoped their daughter would some day become a great surgeon. During her days in high school when the Cultural Revolution was in full swing, Hu's time was all spent either drawing the portrait of Chairman Mao (after her teacher found out she loved painting) or studying the Little Red Book. Finding it all very boring, Hu begged her parents to let her join the army. They relented, and at age 15, Hu joined the People's Liberation Army, where she would serve another 20 years in various roles as a hospital broadcaster/announcer, a librarian, a projectionist, recreational club director, cultural secretary and nurse. [h/t to Wang Ning] more ›

What would you do if you paid a shitload of money to study at some college, thinking it would legit and all, only to be told that your diploma would not be recognised after all? We don't know about you, but we would definitely riot. Well, that's what some civilian students at the Hefei PLA Artillery Academy did a few days back. And it turned out to be a very bloody incident. Iron doors were... more ›