Chinese veterans protest over unpaid benefits

I guess it’s the same all over – about 3,000 Chinese military veterans of the country’s war against Vietnam in the late 70s and their nuclear program converged on the capitol to protest the fact that they hadn’t been paid promised benefits for their service according to the Associated Press;

On Thursday, a website maintained by a veterans group and postings on Chinese social media said about 1,000 former soldiers from around the country joined in a sit-in protest Tuesday at the petitions office under the central military command.

The reports said they were part of a group of about 3,000 that had arrived recently in the capital, while several thousand more had been prevented from coming to Beijing by authorities in their hometowns.

Such protests have grown increasingly common among aging veterans and are treated as extremely politically sensitive by the ruling Communist Party that commands total control over the armed forces. China’s entirely state-controlled media made no mention of Tuesday’s protest and military spokesmen said they had no knowledge of it.

The Chinese government said “Whachou talkin’ ’bout” ignoring media inquiries. The Business Mirror reports;

In Tuesday’s sit-in, the bulk of the veterans were bussed to a sprawling detention center used to house petitioners from out of town while their chief representatives held talks with military officials.

While they were promised that their concerns would be addressed, they were warned that the sit-in was illegal, the web site said, adding that the talks ended on an “unpleasant note.” Organizers decided to end the action that evening and the veterans began returning home, the site said.

The Obama Administration should be looking over their collective shoulder. If this can happen in China, it would be more likely to happen here.

Category: Veterans in the news