"Preliminary Inspection Before Official Physical Examination: New Changes in This Year's Recruitment"

The new soldier transportation work for the first half of 2026 officially starts today. Compared to previous years, what new changes are there in this year's conscription policy regarding process design and the assignment mechanism? How is the focus on "college students" reflected in the policy?

The conscription for the first half of 2026 continues the core policy of recent years, which emphasizes college students as the main recruitment target, highlighting the recruitment of graduates from various levels and types of schools, and prioritizing the enlistment of graduates from science and engineering universities and skilled personnel needed for combat readiness. However, there are two noticeable new changes this year at the operational level.

Cui Ying, Sichuan Provincial Recruitment Office: The new adjustment requires that the preliminary examination and initial review be a legally mandated step, with results recognized nationwide. This means that after eligible youth register online and before they officially undergo physical examinations, they must complete a preliminary health check and information initial review. The preliminary examination institutions include township health centers, community hospitals, and university medical offices, allowing conscripted youth to choose and go for examinations conveniently nearby, greatly enhancing convenience.

The second important change is the nationwide trial implementation of an auxiliary assignment system. Based on passing both the physical examination and political assessment, the comprehensive quality of conscripted youth will be digitized, allowing the system to determine personnel assignments, destinations, and substitutes in one go. This not only meets the military's precise talent needs and improves compatibility but also takes into account the personal wishes of conscripted youth, promoting a sense of security in service and long-term commitment.

Cui Ying, Sichuan Provincial Recruitment Office: For college students and high-skilled conscription targets, there is a certain advantage in the quantification of educational attainment. By conducting a quantitative assessment of the comprehensive quality of conscripted youth, ranking them according to their overall scores, and combining personal preferences, military needs, and strengths, the system automatically generates auxiliary assignment plans, establishing a clear orientation towards quality-based enlistment and ensuring that the right people are placed in the most suitable positions.

It is understood that this year's conscription work also focuses on exploring and promoting a full-chain "sunshine conscription." Various regions promptly disclose enlistment conditions, assignment rules, integrity discipline, supervision methods, and appeal channels, implement on-site notification of individual physical examination results, provide online feedback of examination conclusions within three days, ensure the entire process of comprehensive quality assessment is open, invite parent representatives and integrity recruitment supervisors to oversee the assignment process, and promptly publicize the assignment results.

Zeng Xianqing, parent of a new recruit: After listening to the education on integrity in conscription, I, as a parent of a new recruit, have been deeply educated. During the conscription process, we will actively cooperate and maintain integrity and self-discipline.

With the implementation of a series of standardized and transparent measures, the proportion of high-quality recruits has continued to rise in the first half of this year, with more and more youth responding to the call of the motherland to join the military, contributing their youthful strength to national defense and military construction.

What steps are required to become a qualified new recruit?

What steps must one go through to become a soldier? From registering for enlistment to stepping into the military camp, what does each step assess? Why is the pre-enlistment education, known as the "adaptation period" for enlistment, so crucial?

For conscripted youth, joining the military is not an instantaneous process but a tightly linked selection process.

The specific process for conscripted youth can be summarized in seven steps: ① Online registration, where male youth must first complete military service registration; ② Preliminary examination and initial review; ③ Physical examination and political assessment; ④ Pre-enlistment education; ⑤ Approval of new recruits; ⑥ Public announcement; ⑦ Handover and transportation.

Among these seven steps, this year's newly adjusted "preliminary examination and initial review" and the subsequent "physical examination and political assessment" constitute a dual check on physical and political qualifications. The "pre-enlistment education" has become an important focus in recent years. Pre-enlistment education is usually organized and implemented before the approval of assignments, lasting no less than seven days. It mainly includes ideological and political learning, policy and regulation education, education on glorious traditions, military adaptation training, heart-to-heart talks, and problem hazard investigations. Pre-enlistment education is not only a "must-pass" step but also a core selection phase that determines whether one can become a formal recruit.

Cui Ying, Sichuan Provincial Recruitment Office: Pre-enlistment education is a legally mandated step for conscription. By organizing centralized education based on the military's new recruit training model, the goal is to further correct enlistment motives, improve adaptability to military life, screen out unqualified personnel, and better support training and combat readiness, as well as deliver high-quality recruits to the military. This "preparatory class" of pre-enlistment education is helping a growing number of highly educated and high-quality youth to understand military knowledge in advance, experience military style, strengthen their determination to join the military, and successfully complete the transformation from local youth to qualified soldiers.

New recruit Cheng Yunyue: I want to transform the spirit of the Anti-Japanese United Army forged by my predecessors with their blood into an inexhaustible driving force for achieving success in the military, to sharpen my will, refine my character, and enhance my abilities, using my youth and blood to defend the peace and tranquility of my motherland, to bring glory to my hometown, and to add luster to the military flag.

It is understood that after the pre-enlistment education concludes, the process will enter the approval of new recruits. To ensure fairness and justice, the assignment process is governed by strict institutional norms. Through improving institutional mechanisms, strengthening digital support, and enhancing supervision, the conscription work is becoming increasingly standardized and transparent.