BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Central Military Commission (CMC) will terminate all paid services provided by the military by the end of June 2018, according to a military professor.
"In the first stage, services in 10 fields should stop by the end of this June," said Jiang Luming, professor at the National University of Defense Technology, in an interview with Xinhua.
The 10 fields are nursery education, press and publications, culture and sports, communications, personnel training, barrack projects, storage and transportation, militia armament repair, repair technology and driver instruction, he said.
Projects in another five fields -- real estate rentals, agricultural products, accommodation services, medical care and scientific research -- should be ceased by the end of June 2018, he added.
In February 2016, the CMC issued a circular urging the end of all paid services by the armed forces and the armed police.
Jiang said that the military had received support from local governments and courts.
He said that the armed forces and armed police had not been allowed to run business since 1998, but were permitted to use surplus resources to provide paid services to the public in the 15 fields, as China's service industry was weak at the time.
Such services had supported national economic development, provided public convenience and made up for a shortage in military expenditure, he said.
However, in recent years, with the development of the market economy, and imperfections in the paid service system, corruption cases were exposed in the military due to such services.
Jiang said that the principle of paid services were not in line with the military personnel's spirit of devotion.
Paid services also demanded attention from officers and soldiers and encroached military resources, which were needed for military training.
