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National Day parade lures college students to join Army

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-28 14:02

BEIJING: A poster showing the troops walking in formations in the National Day military parade, on October 1, was eye-catching at a recruitment point on the campus of the Renmin University of China (RUC) in this national capital.

"These days my office telephone has rung ceaselessly as many parents of students have called us to consult the issue of joining the Army," said Bai Yonglian, an official of the RUC.

On October 26, the office received almost 1,000 students and over 40 percent of them were girls, Bai said. On the day, over 50 students including four postgraduates handed over their application for the conscription.

"I was deeply lured by the women's squads in the National Day parade, and I was so eager to become one of them," said Liu Guiyang, a girl student of the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. She told Xinhua that although her university has not started with the recruitment, some of her schoolmates have sent their applications to the university authorities.

Photos of the parade, which are also attached to pamphlets distributed to applicants, are widely used by universities in their mobilization efforts this year as the Chinese Armed Forces made it the first year to recruit new graduates from universities.

So far, over 3,100 university students in Beijing have applied for the membership of the Chinese Armed Forces, including the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Chinese People's Armed Police Corps (PAPC), according to the city's conscription office.