According to the Ministry of National Defense, more than 4.7 million youths have applied for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) this year, with over 800,000 of them fresh out of university.
The ministry's spokesman, Senior Colonel Yang Yujun, stated that the number of new recruits is much higher than in previous years.
In a report by the Global Times, Zheng Bing, an official from the Beijing military recruitment office, confirmed the statistics.
"About 70 percent of new recruits this year are fresh graduates, compared with the 61.8 percent figure from last year," he said.
Since most youths are the only child in the family, they tend to be introverts and their parents expect military life to discipline them, according to Zheng.
Colonel Yang stated that the new recruits are required to arrive at their assigned military camps by the end of September.
Although no official records are accessible on the number of college students who serve in the military every year, local military recruitment offices have stated that they have incurred an increase in the number of provincial recruits.
Such an influx of newcomers in the military provides the latter a chance to train much-needed new blood, according to Song Zhongping, a Beijing-based military expert.
Song added that it also provides new graduates a new career option.
After two years of service, some of the recruits are discharged and enjoy benefits, such as funding for further education, while others decide to serve longer as officers.
A new soldier can receive an annual salary reaching up to 88,000 yuan ($13,745), which is higher than the starting salary of many other professions.
For this year's graduates, the average annual salary is approximately 32,000 yuan, according to a report published jointly by Peking University and job-search website ganji.com.