[Goose]

Question re: Russian and Chinese militaries. Is it true that neither has a noncommissioned officer corps?

No, it is not true, in any sense of the word. Both militaries have NCOs. Their NCOs however have quite different responsibilities than NCOs in the US military have. Both countries military are very "top down" in their command structures. In those militaries both company-grade officers and their subordinate NCOs have very little decision-making responsibility. They enforce discipline and do what they are told. OTOH, the Russian Navy couldn't operate at all without their cadre of Michmen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michman These senior enlisted are generally the only ones on the vessel who actually can operate it :-). For a table of Russian ranks, look at https://www.warpowerrussia.com/russian-m...-ranks.php Plenty of NCOs.

[Goose]

Question re: Russian and Chinese militaries. Is it true that neither has a noncommissioned officer corps?

No, it is not true, in any sense of the word. Both militaries have NCOs. Their NCOs however have quite different responsibilities than NCOs in the US military have. Both countries military are very "top down" in their command structures. In those militaries both company-grade officers and their subordinate NCOs have very little decision-making responsibility. They enforce discipline and do what they are told. OTOH, the Russian Navy couldn't operate at all without their cadre of Michmen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michman These senior enlisted are generally the only ones on the vessel who actually can operate it :-). For a table of Russian ranks, look at https://www.warpowerrussia.com/russian-m...-ranks.php Plenty of NCOs.