China vowed to better protect the rights of serving military personnel and their families by setting up a special leading group at the local level to resolve issues involving military institutions and staff, a move which analysts said highlights the importance of maintaining stability within the military.

Local governments in 31 provincial regions were asked to set up leading groups with officials from prosecutorial offices, military and other related government departments for these issues, according to the guideline jointly issued by the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the General Political Department of the PLA recently.

The guideline orders authorities to deal with cases involving service personnel and their families in a timely manner. These issues may include marriages, injuries, land expropriation, and demolition compensation.

Safeguarding the interests of national defense and rights of the service personnel and their families is important for the building of a strong military and maintaining social stability, an official with the PLA military court told the PLA Daily on Monday.

Authorities can provide preference for dealing with cases involving serving personnel and their families in accordance with laws and the priority of military missions, the official added.

"These measures are made under the new situation in recent years where China has witnessed more social and economic conflicts such as land disputes and forced demolitions," Song Zhongping, a military affairs commentator in Beijing, told the Global Times on Monday.

Military-civilian unity and military stability will be damaged when service personnel or their families' rights are violated in these cases, Song said, adding that it is more important to protect their rights at a local level where conflicts erupt more often. 

"Small conflicts at the grass roots may lead to major ones without proper and fast management, and authorities should resolve the problems at the local level," Song said.

These new measures contributed to the legal construction work in the military, which is a major part of ongoing military reform, he added.

Some serving personnel used to feel less courageous to report these violations than civilians, Beijing-based lawyer Yi Shenghua said, adding that they also need to report the cases to military authorities before they hand them to local judicial organs.

Although these measures are likely to help better protect service personnel's rights, Yi said that it could also send the wrong signal that suggests service personnel's interests and rights are higher than that of the general public.

Moreover, Yi said that the group may influence the judicial organ and even affect the independence of trials since it also included officials from local administrative departments.

He argued that a communication mechanism between the military's system of rights protection and the local judicial organs will be better at avoiding potential interference than a special leading group.

A coordinating mechanism will be enacted at the national level, requiring the top court, top prosecutors and ministries of public security, civil affairs, justice, finance, human resources and social security, and land and resources to designate officials to report and study important military rights protection issues, according to the guideline.

Authorities are urged to crack down on cases involving theft of military secrets, sabotaging military facilities, stealing military supplies, or impersonation of servicemen, it said.