Topic: Conscripted, registered, or merely obliged on paper
How does China mark Conscripted, registered, or merely obliged on paper?
Everyday topic
China writes defence into the chapter of the constitution that lists citizens' duties. Article 55 is two sentences in two different registers. The first: to defend the motherland and resist aggression is the sacred duty of every citizen of the People's Republic of China. The second: it is the honourable obligation of citizens to perform military service and join the militia in accordance with law. The first sentence carries no limit of sex or age and prescribes no particular act; only the second lands on institutions, and it puts the militia alongside the armed forces — the vehicle of defence is not only the army. Calling the obligation honourable rather than compulsory is the clearest tonal difference from Article 1 of Taiwan's Military Service Act, which simply states the duty: one writes it as an honour, the other as a legal liability. The actual call-up, the ages and the length of service are left to the Military Service Law; the constitution supplies the place and the name of the duty.
What is this topic?
Article 1 of Taiwan's Military Service Act is a single sentence — every male citizen has the duty to serve — and Article 16 sets active conscript service at one year. China's constitution calls military service an "honourable obligation". Brazil's constitution says obligatory, then lets conscientious objectors take alternative service and exempts women and clergy in peacetime. The United States is stranger: 50 U.S.C. §3802 requires men aged 18 to 26 to register, and almost nobody is ever called. Japan's constitution keeps no land, sea or air forces at all. Indonesia and India both write a duty to defend into their constitutions and have no conscription. The same phrase, and a gap that runs from a year in barracks to a single form.
Sources and dates
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