Chinese Army Gets Fashion Upgrade

Troops of the People’s Liberation Army are to become chic symbols of national pride and sophistication — so says the commander who oversaw the latest uniform upgrade.

“A uniform represents the image of the military and is a country’s calling card,” Liao told the official Xinhua news agency, complaining that the previous designs “lacked color coordination”.

“This adjustment of our military’s uniforms gave more attention to functionality and a human touch, and the stress has been on fullness of the range, color coordination, pleasant design and clear insignia.”

The full rejig of troops’ clothes by 2009 will not be cheap — costing about 6 billion yuan (392 million pounds) for the PLA force of 2.3 million.

The tone of green used in army outfits appeared darker than before, and berets are to become standard issue.

One big change was the removal of a red band from green, rimmed hats. Xinhua said critics wanted to keep the flash of color, which symbolized the ruling Communist party.

By Sirius on 09-07-2007