The 20th Group Army (GA), headquartered in Kaifeng, Henan Province is one of the three group armies subordinated to the Jinan Military Region (MR). The group army was formed in 1985 on the basis of the PLA 20th Corps, which had been stationed in the central Henan Province since 1975.
The group army originally had three infantry divisions (58th, 60h, and 128th) and a tank division (10th) in the 1980s. In 1996, the 128th Motorised Infantry Division was transferred to the People’s Armed Police (PAP). In 1998, the 58th Motorised Infantry Division was chose to be the first PLA unit to pilot the “division-to-brigade” reorganisation, but the unit was at the same time upgraded to a mechanised infantry unit equipped with armoured fighting vehicles. The 60th Motorised Infantry Division was subsequently downsized to a brigade.
In 1998, the 11th Tank Division was reorganised into the 11th Armoured Division. The division was soon reassigned to the 54th GA, while the armoured brigade originally organic to the 54th GA was reassigned to the 20th GA.
