would not list to give excuse for denying  visa  spying etc.  leave the can of worms closed.

I listed mine and it caused no problems, but then the last 6 years of my service was as an instructor so relevant to my new field (teaching).

I would list it or it opens up questions about the big gap in your CV, there is almost nothing employers dislike more than gaps in a CV as that usually means being unemployed which begets the question 'why'.

I suppose it depends on what you did in the military and related to that, you security clearance.  And of course, how recent the service was.

For me, I always list my military experience.  I just may not elaborate what I actually did during that time.  If they ask, I tell them that I was a "team leader" which is true, but not very precise.

In the US, I tell them the truth if they ask, but even 20 years later I still get looks when I tell them that my job was to make sure that when a bomb falls off a plane and doesn't go "boom", it is my job to go out and make sure it never decides to go "boom" later.  It also served as a great answer to the "How well can you handle pressure" question.

I've heard of people getting detained upon entry for an hour or two, but Shenyang is something of a special case because the People's Army has strong presence in the city. If you're going somewhere in the south, it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't an issue at all. 

By your post you have now  already made a list some place

Depends on what job you're applying for. Is it needed?  If not,  play it safe and keep it off.

I list where I went to school when I was in the military....the credits I got through the military counted towards some college credit. When I got out and applied for college I automatically got 4 college credits for physical fitness education, I obtained my chemistry credits while I was in highschool. 

As far as the resume goes military service is important because it shows that you've been places and what you were doing with your life at that time. There is nothing to hide from when saying you served. Be proud! There aren't gonna be spys coming after you. If you were in the military you must have learned things such as this how to avoid danger. 

And yes it does look impressive. Those that say it doesn't probably never served. It's like when you are in a company and people say bad things on the outside but they never experienced first hand how it is. I remember I was working for a company and a girl was saying bad things how her friend lost money yadayada.....but the people that worked there flew through college. Even took double or triple the amount of classes everybody else was taking and aced them all, graduated early with honors and got paid well in the processs. 

So don't listen to naysayers they are the one's that are against you for some reason or another. It's your life and that was part of your life. To try to hide it is like saying what you did was wrong or bad and at the time what you were doing was a waste of time and waste of your life. 

If I'm wrong please feel free to correct me. However, I'm fairly certain that your resume has nothing to do with you getting a Visa. It simply has to do with a job wanting to hire you or not.

I know nowadays supposedly your suppose to have a couple of years of teaching experience get a working Visa so in that case they may need proof of that, but I have yet to see that rule actually enforced.

Even when I first applie for a Visa to China when I still lived in my home country,  there were never any questions asking about all of my work history or me being in the military or not previously.

In summary..... I'm 99% certain the government never even see's your job resume when they are giving out Visa's. At least not your entire work history.

As for as applying for a job though.... it's always a good idea to put it on there in my opinion. In many cases you can use it as a way to convince people that you can work well under stress or stay committed to something you sign up to do.

I' like to also add that out of the 9 or 10 former military personal I know now living in China. Not a single one of them have ever had a problem getting a visa or a job.

Anyone saying you putting down basic military service on your resume could result in you getting a visa denied is just dishing out conspiarcy theroies with no factual evidence to support it.

Now if you were fluent in mandarin and you worked in an important intellgance gathering type of role in the military... THEN I could see there possibly being problem and some red flags being raised.... Even in that case though I know a guy in the Air Force that worked in intel and learned mandarin while in the military and he still had no problem coming to China.