Defense: China's universities train 65,000 reserve military officers

A total of 116 civilian universities in China have trained 65,000 reserve military officers for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the last eight years, in line with the government's strategy of "using science and technology to strengthen the army".

The figures were revealed on Thursday at a conference on training reserve military officers in civilian universities, jointly held by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the PLA General Political Department.

Xinhua reports almost 48,000 Chinese college students are currently training as reserve military officers in civilian schools, more than 10,000 of whom join the army each year, with 80 percent going to the air force, navy, the Second Artillery Force, or strategic troop deployment