More than 1,000 veterans marched in front of China's defence ministry in Beijing on Tuesday in what appeared to be a protest against swingeing reform of the People's Liberation Army, the world's largest standing army.
Using armoured vehicles and buses, police blocked off streets around the Bayi building in downtown Beijing as hundreds of ex-soldiers wearing camouflaged fatigues waved Chinese flags and chanted to protest against losing their jobs as part of the reforms.
Last year, President Xi Jinping announced a modernisation and restructuring of the People’s Liberation Army, which has 2.3 million personnel, with cutbacks of 300,000 personnel, although there were few details about how the restructuring would roll out and what would become of the troops let go.
Searches about the protest on China’s normally buzzing social media were fruitless as censors stepped in.
The process of restructuring China’s heavily state-owned economy has seen scattered protests around the country, but such a large display of dissent in front of government buildings is unusual.
In June last year, several thousand veterans of China's 1979 border war with Vietnam took to the streets to protest about pension rights.
In all, there are about six million PLA veterans receiving state pensions, but many retirees claim their benefits are insufficient.
At this year’s National People’s Congress, legislators told the parliament that the government planned to increase its spend on allowances for demobbed troops by 13 per cent to 39.8 billion yuan (€5.37 billion) this year.
Mr Xi, who as well as head of the Communist Party and the head of state is chief of the Central Military Commission, said the army is now about "winning wars" and wants an efficient fighting force. He has also ordered the military to end their business affairs.
Efforts to get the army back into shape have intensified as the government tries to back China's claims in the South China Sea, especially since an international tribunal in The Hague ruled against China's activities in the area.
