Recruit Abuse: Chinese Netizens React

The Chinese Public Safety Bureau announced that the incident involving the beating of new military recruits in Inner Mongolia is "being handled strictly and according to the law."

The eight soldiers who participated in the beating have been detained and 16 others are being "held responsible." When the video of the beating surfaced online, there was widespread discussion. For a long time, the Chinese military had never revealed any scandals to the public.

But after the video from the Inner Mongolia incident was made public, it was not deleted but disseminated by the media including the state run media. The Inner Mongolia military branch quickly admitted to the incident. The announcement that the Public Safety Bureau was investigating the incident was met with widespread approval by netizens.

"We should support the government stance on this matter," said one comment. "From the speed at which the government responded and is dealing with the situation you can tell that they are determined."

However, the Public Safety Bureau has not notified the public as to who is being held responsible nor have they announced the physical conditions of the recruits who were beaten. This of course, has left many unsatisfied.

"This incident has tested the people's trust toward the military," netizens are calling for the prosecution of those responsible as well as for the names of those involved, including their leaders. "Don't dig up some low ranking officers to clean up this mess."

Others also suspected that the absence of names is a result of the military's attitude that the people will be satisfied if they just say they are investigating. There have been calls demanding that the military punish those responsible severely as well as announce the results.

According to the government website, they are responding to this situation by sending personnel out to various installations around the country to ensure that proper training is being done at all military installations.