Chinese army relaxes physical standards for new recruits

Stepping up its recruitment drive to attract people with high education background, the 2.3 million-strong Chinese military has relaxed its physical standards for new recruits, allowing shorter and fatter people to gain entry.
The height requirement for a male candidate has been adjusted from 162 cm to 160 cm and for female candidates, from 160 cm to 158 cm, by the world's largest army.
The upper weight limit for male enlistees was also relaxed by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to allow more portly young men into the military, the Defence Ministry's recruitment office was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.

The new standards also lowered eyesight requirements because nearly 70 per cent of high school and university students in China are nearsighted.
The PLA is now more tolerant of tattoos, which had been regarded as a taboo in the military.
People who have less than 2 cm of tattoos showing on their body while in uniform or 10 cm of total ink are allowed to join the military.

However, tattoos with obscene or violent matter or referring to illegal organisations will still disqualify candidates.
The PLA has also for the first time removed mental illnesses from a list that would bar candidates from military service, including schizophrenia, dissociative disorder, depression and bipolar disorder.

Officials say that the recruitment rules which were being steadily relaxed over the years are aimed at attracting more college graduates considering that most of the modern fare involved a lot of technology and the military personnel should be more tech savvy.
The four municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, and provincial capitals, as well as regions with high concentrations of universities, will recruit only among those who have at least a high school diploma.
Other cities or regions will gradually reduce the number of recruits without a high school education, the report said.
Enlisting more high-quality soldiers is extremely important to building a strong and capable military, recruitment officials said, noting that the PLA has created a host of preferential policies to attract young people.