Chapter VIII The Armed Forces and the People    

    China's national defense is the people's national defense, and China's armed forces belong to the people. It is an important responsibility and duty of the Chinese armed forces to take part in national construction and exert themselves in the service of the people. Strengthening unity between the PLA and the governmentand between the PLA and the people is an important political foundation for relying on the people to build national defense andthe PLA.     

    Supporting the PLA and Giving Preferential Treatment to Families of Servicemen and Martyrs, and Supporting the Government and Cherishing the People

    Maintaining unity between the military and the people and between the PLA and the government, supporting the PLA and giving preferential treatment to families of servicemen and martyrs, and supporting the government and cherishing the people: these are thefundamental principles consistently adhered to in the building of national defense and the PLA. Supporting the PLA and giving preferential treatment to families of servicemen and martyrs are activities carried out by the local people's governments at all levels, mass organizations and the masses to support the PLA and give preferential treatment to families of active-duty servicemen and revolutionary martyrs. Supporting the government and cherishing the people is the mass work carried out by the people'sarmy focusing on support for the government and love for the people. These glorious traditions formed during the revolutionary wars demonstrated tremendous might in Chinese people's liberation cause. 

    Since the founding of New China, the work of supporting the PLAand giving preferential treatment to families of servicemen and martyrs has been gradually legalized and standardized. The State Council has, in succession, promulgated the Regulations on the Commendation of Revolutionary Martyrs, the Regulations on Compensation and Preferential Treatment for Servicemen and the Regulations on the Resettlement of Demobilized Conscripts. It has also formulated and issued policies and statutes on the resettlement of officers transferred to civilian work, on the employment of the accompanying spouses of officers, and on safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of servicemen andtheir families. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the PLA General Political Department jointly issue circulars on New Year's Day, the Spring Festival and Army Day every year on the arrangements for the work of supporting the PLA and giving preferential treatment to families of servicemen and martyrs and supporting thegovernment and cherishing the people. In the past ten years and more, proper arrangements have been made for more than 600,000 officers transferred to civilian work, more than 7,000,000 demobilized enlisted men, more than 50,000 disabled enlisted men and more than 900,000 spouses. In addition, more than 100,000 retired military cadres and civilian employees have been given political status and material benefits they deserve, and children of servicemen enjoy preferential policies in education. In August 2004, the State Council and the CMC promulgated the newly revised Regulations on Compensation and Preferential Treatment for Servicemen, greatly raising the compensation standards, expanding the scope and increasing the items of social preferential treatment, and further improving the compensation and preferentialtreatment system for servicemen, which is suited to the conditionsof China.

    The people's governments at all levels have incorporated the work of supporting the PLA and giving preferential treatment to families of servicemen and martyrs into their economic and social development programs, and given active support to national defensebuilding and the PLA. They have actively helped PLA units to accomplish tasks of education and training, performing combat readiness duties, conducting scientific research and testing, and carrying out the construction of military projects, by ensuring the requisitioning of sites and providing road support and material supplies. They have encouraged regular institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutions to provide the PLA with technological and intellectual support, and established bases for such purposes to help PLA units train personnel in different fields. They have organized non-governmental sectors to help PLA grass-roots units to improve their living conditions, supplied to them food, oil, water and electricity with priority, helped build barracks and living quarters, and set up food-production bases and cultural centers, and helped nearly one million families of servicemen to overcome their living, housing and medical care difficulties. Local governments at all levels have established working mechanisms for safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of servicemen andtheir families, courts at the basic level have set up collegiate benches for cases involving servicemen, and judicial administrative organs in various places have set up legal assistance centers to solve and mediate in the legal problems of servicemen and their families. In the past two years or so, more than 300 cities (counties), more than 2,000 enterprises and institutions and more than 1,000 individuals have been commended by the Central Government and its relevant departments for their outstanding performance in supporting the PLA and giving preferential treatment to families of servicemen and martyrs.