Military instructors being probed for courting students

Several military training instructors have been put under investigation after allegations of courting fresh college girls in public in a university in East China’s Shandong Province.

Viral pictures show three military instructors kneeling down and confessing their affection to female college students, giving flowers and holding shoulders at Linyi campus of Qingdao University of Technology.

An employee from the university told the Global Times on Monday that they are dealing with this incident, without revealing further details.

According to the local newspaper Lunan Shangbao on Sunday, the school published a statement saying that several military training instructors took photos with students when they were departing after the military training ended on Friday. It said the military and university are investigating the case.

A sophomore student from the university told the Global Times on Monday that the university prohibits military training instructors to have intimate contact with students. “Even exchanging each other’s phone numbers or any other personal contact is strictly forbidden by the university,” he said.

Many netizens criticized instructors for violating the rules. “Holding girls and courting in such a manner is highly inappropriate for soldiers,” a netizen wrote on Sina Weibo.

According to a report in the Henan Daily, a military training instructor confessed his affection to a female student in public in Shangqiu Medical College in Central China’s Henan Province in 2015, and what shocked the public was that the instructor had done the same thing to another girl last year.

“Normally the new soldiers are in charge of training students. But there are some irresponsible universities who hire retired soldiers or even non- military personnel to train the students,” an employee from the public security bureau of Northwestern China’s Qinghai Province told the Global Times on Monday.

In 2015, a military training instructor surnamed Luo, who was not qualified to be an instructor, was detained after he kicked a 16- yearold high school boy, injuring his spleen, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

In 2015, military officials suggested a code of conduct be developed for the training instructors, in order to eliminate undesirable incidents during military training, reported the PLA Daily, a military newspaper.