Chinese Army’s New Health Assessment Project Focuses On ‘Combat Capacity’

The Chinese army has piloted a new health assessment project centering on "combat capacity", a newspaper of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) said Thursday.

The new system includes separate standards for physical and mental health examinations, including nine practical guidelines on bodybuilding, injury recovery, diet and nutrition, weight control, mental health training and rehabilitation, Xinhua cited a report by the PLA Daily.

The system's leading designer Mi Mantian, medical professor with the Third Military Medical University, believes it will effectively improve the servicemen's physical and mental health and enhance the troops' combat capacity.

The project took medical experts nearly two years in design. They visited more than 40 army units to do research and collected 500,000 sets of data concerning soldiers' physiological function, mental condition and body shape, according to the newspaper.

It will be expanded in navy and other military services, the newspaper said.

The PLA authorities had set a compulsive weight standard in a five-year reform outline earlier in 2015, warning that overweight soldiers and officers will not be promoted.