‘Life is wonderful because of the military’: People’s Liberation Army recruitment campaigns in contemporary China

This chapter examines recruitment campaigns for the Chinese military under the current leadership of Xi Jinping in the context of China’s ongoing attempts to modernise and professionalise its army. Reviewing the conscription challenges the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) faced in the 2000s and the steps taken to address these challenges, it analyses a series of promotional videos produced in 2013–18. Drawing on Chinese government, military and media sources, it explores the form and content of such videos and the ways in which they sought to attract new recruits to the PLA. The analysis shows that alongside traditional appeals to recruits’ sense of patriotism and collective duty, the PLA’s contemporary advertisements also promote military service as a vehicle for self-fulfilment and personal development. Disseminated through social media sites, this new marketing message attests to the PLA’s ability to adapt to new civilian sensibilities and to adapt its propaganda accordingly. Yet it also carries considerable risks for the PLA’s recruitment goals and its public standing in China.