People’s Daily ran a report on heavy mobile phone usage within the armed police unit in Hengshui City, Hebei Province. The piece, titled “Exploring ‘Proper Usage’ of Mobile Phones in Military Camps,” covered efforts to direct soldiers who spend a lot of time watching short entertaining videos or playing video games on their cell phones. Several stories were reported about inspiring soldiers to use their time well in furthering the communist party’s goals.
The Political Instructor of an armed police company noticed that soldiers’ mobile phone usage was heavy, with members of the company watching short videos, playing games, or consuming news. The instructor showed the soldiers several “meaningful” and “inspiring” videos that appeared on his own video feed, e.g. a video titled “Why did the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army become the ‘Best Army’?” (the “Volunteer Army” refers to Chinese forces deployed against US and UN forces during the Korean War) and “Explaining the Ins and Outs of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” The instructor contrasted these videos with the pop-entertainment videos appearing on the soldiers’ own video feeds, saying that only such “meaningful” and “inspiring” content could leave a deep impression in their minds. Soldiers thus started to watch such genres of video that the instructor recommended.
In another military unit, a soldier shared a picture of his camp life and forgot to blur out the face of his commanding officer (which was considered to be leaking a military secret). Seeing the soldier’s affinity for posting on social media, the commanding officer encouraged the soldier to create reports for the military unit on social media so as to cultivate a “positive” image for the unit.
Source: People’s Daily, December 21, 2023
http://military.people.com.cn/n1/2023/1221/c1011-40143905.html