China Issues 15th Five-Year Plan to Upgrade Veterans Services and Support

The General Offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission have jointly released the "15th Five-Year Plan for Veterans Services and Support." The blueprint sets policy priorities for veteran affairs during the upcoming planning cycle, emphasizing Party leadership, civil-military coordination, and high-quality resettlement. Key initiatives outlined in the document include upgrading grassroots veteran service stations, modernizing martyr memorial facilities, and strengthening preferential medical and convalescent care.

Issued jointly by China's highest Party, administrative, and military executive bodies, this plan establishes the overarching framework for veterans affairs through the end of the decade. Veterans policy directly affects social stability, morale among active-duty personnel, and the military's broader mobilization and recruitment capacity.

The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the General Office of the State Council, and the General Office of the Central Military Commission have jointly issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Veterans Services and Support," according to an official announcement carried by Xinhua News Agency. The plan sets out high-level deployment and policy guidelines for veterans affairs during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The document characterizes military veterans as valuable assets of the Party and state as well as an important force in advancing Chinese modernization, noting that veterans work is directly tied to national reform, development, social stability, and the ongoing modernization of the armed forces. It calls for thorough implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military and Xi's directives on veterans affairs, establishing a dual mandate to serve both socioeconomic development and national defense and military construction. According to the released outline, veterans policy during this cycle will focus on high-quality development driven by structural reforms in veteran administration and welfare. The plan calls for continuous improvements across three administrative pillars: the organizational management system, the operational workflow system, and the policy and institutional framework. The stated objective is to ensure discharged personnel are properly received, resettled, supported, educated, managed, and legally protected, reinforcing official goals to raise social respect for military personnel and veterans. The directive sets forth five operational principles for the coming years: maintaining Party leadership, adhering to a people-centered approach that defends veterans' legal rights, pursuing institutional innovation, strengthening civil-military coordination, and applying tailored, category-specific measures to enhance the precision and sustainability of services. To achieve these aims, the plan lays out major tasks encompassing governance reform, ideological guidance, honors and commendations, high-quality resettlement and employment programs, and improved preferential support for military families. In addition, the document outlines concrete infrastructure initiatives, such as enhancing the operational capacity of grassroots veteran service centers and stations, upgrading martyr memorial facilities, and strengthening preferential medical and convalescent care services.