Beijing is on a continuing drive to maintain the honor, rights and benefits of the armed forces, in a move seen as boosting military morale and reinforcing allegiance to the Communist Party and the highest leadership amid tensions with its neighbors.

Efforts to keep the military in the government’s corner include increasing the 2021 defense budget by 6.8 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan (US$207 billion), according to a draft budget report issued at the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress on Friday.

Prosecutors and the judiciary will also help by supporting compensation to injured troops and their families, and cracking down on adultery involving soldiers’ wives, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in their work reports released on Monday.

The country’s growing strength in recent years has translated into heightened territorial disputes in the South China Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and border areas with India. This has in turn raised the profile of the People’s Liberation Army in protecting national interests.

On the conflict with India, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate named in its work report an online commentator who allegedly defamed the Chinese military over border clashes last year. Prosecutors swiftly intervened, the top prosecution agency said, and on March 1 the commentator was arrested on suspicion of damaging the good honor and reputation of heroes and martyrs.

Last year, 381 people were under prosecution for wrecking military facilities or military marriages, Procurator-General Zhang Jun of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in his report.

The authorities also helped 378 soldiers, retired veterans and their family members who were victims of illegal abuse, a threefold increase from 2019.

Sabotaging military facilities and military marriages was a definite no-no. A total of 633 such cases and 10,418 involving disputes between military, civilian and business parties were tried last year, Supreme People’s Court Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said

For example, a court in Hunan province worked with the local government and helped a frontline soldier in Tibet to obtain compensation for his father’s fatal accident, the report said.

An independent political scholar told Apple Daily that the annual session of the state legislature this year emphasized the protection of rights of the armed forces, which was an important signal to pacify the military and boost morale.

A bigger military struggle might be going on behind the scenes, as the Beijing authorities were facing a challenge on how to stabilize the army, Wu Qiang said. So, the authorities had to enhance protection of the military and their families in order to reinforce their loyalty to the party and the top leaders, the scholar said.

Making it an offense to “sabotage a military marriage” was a law unique to mainland China. It could infringe on the remarriage rights of the wife of a serviceman, particularly in modern society, said Larry, a YouTube military commentator. He noted that many Western countries had abolished the crime of adultery.

According to Article 259 of China’s Criminal Law, whoever knowingly cohabits with or marries a person who is the spouse of an active serviceman shall be sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention. The purpose of the law is to ensure family harmony for soldiers so they would be free of domestic worries.

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