China's army releases action-packed rap recruitment video

In a bid to attract educated youths to the world’s largest army, China’s People's Liberation Army has released its first rap-style hip-hop music video filled with masculine lyrics and images of advanced weaponry, styling itself on par with the American military.

The song, called ‘Battle Declaration’ focusing on winning wars, was posted on the People’s Liberation Army daily’s website last Thursday. It is the first PLA-made hip-hop video, the state media reported on Tuesday.

The new sleek video junks previous PLA songs which were sung to the accompaniment of orchestral melodies and their lyrics were carefully worded to avoid being too aggressive, state-run China Daily reported.

The song, in an unmistakable effort to cater to the taste of young people, features a popular hip-hop style and the lyrics hide neither combativeness nor a desire to fight.

The video starts with a young PLA soldier touching his uniform and putting on his cap. Then a man’s voice comes in and says, “There are always missions in soldiers’ minds, enemies in their eyes, responsibilities on their shoulders, and passions in their hearts. There could be a war at any time. Are you ready for that?”

A PLA publicity expert identified only as Jiao told the daily that “the PLA is no longer the poorly equipped one that they saw from TV dramas, but a powerful force as modernised as the United States military”.

PLA, the world’s biggest army with 2.3 million personnel, enjoys the second highest defence budget of over $146 billion, only second to that of America’s $534 billion.

The video was part of new look PLA which has carried out radical restructuring of its military commands to enhance the Communist Party of China’s leadership over the military and boost the PLA’s combat capabilities by establishing a more modern military system.

The video shows soldiers training and exercising, fighter jets conducting dogfights and missiles being fired, among other military activities.

Almost all of the PLA’s best weaponry is displayed in the video, including the first aircraft carrier Liaoning, J-11 fighter jet, Type-99A tank and DF-11 ballistic missile.

Satellites and spacecraft also appear in the video, which indicates the PLA has placed unprecedented importance on its space force, Jiao said, adding that the hip-hop video could be a big help in recruiting young people, specially educated young people to operate its modern machinery, Jiao said.

Ironically, PLA scouts for new recruitment as it braces to shed three lakh personnel starting from next year to make it a leaner force. Also, an increasing number of media reports say some young people spare no efforts to avoid military service.