|
The PLA will cut 200,000 personnel and reform the restructure of its ground troops by the end of year, a move the Chinese official media said was to increase its combat effectiveness.
China announced in September 2003 that it would reduce its military from 2.5 million to about 2.3 million in two years. According to the Chinese reports, the 200,000 personnel reduction programme is going smoothly, and will be completed by the end of 2005.
At the same time, the PLA is carrying out extensive reform on the structure of its ground troops, adding new combat units and cutting outdated ones, in an effort to create combat effectiveness and intensify the force's combat effectiveness.
All military units are urged to strictly abide by the restructuring programme. Inspectors have been sent from the PLA headquarters to military regions to monitor the proceeding of the force reduction and restructuring.
The PLA ground forces have been experimenting a new organisational structure, where the original four-level “group army-division-regiment-battalion” chain of command is streamlined into a three-level “group army-brigade-battalion” structure. According to the reports, more ground units will be transformed into this new structure, and the navy and air force will also be restructured to increase their combat effectiveness.
16 July 2005
|
