The PLA Marine Corps is a combined-arms amphibious assault force subordinated to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The corps is mainly composed of a headquarters and two combined-arms 6,000-man brigades in the South Sea Fleet. The force includes infantry, artillery, armour, engineer, communications, chemical defence, anti-armour, and scout personnel. The Marine Corps has two parallel chain-of-command: while it reports operationally through the South Sea Fleet commander, the corps is administratively responsible to the PLAN headquarters in Beijing for training, equipment, planning, personnel and policy. As a part of the PLA’s rapid reaction units (RRU), the Marine Corps would likely be tasked directly by the PLA General Staff Department (GSD) in time of crisis.
Brief History
Soldiers of the PLA Marine Corps were wearing the sailor-style jumpers in its early years (Chinese Internet)
The PLA formed its first amphibious warfare unit was formed in 1953 to capture the offshore islands still occupied by the Kuomintang forces. By the end of the Korea War, the force had developed into a 110,000-man force comprising eight divisions. However, this force was later disbanded in 1957 as the PRC leaders abandoned the plan to seize Taiwan. Following the disbanding of the Marine Corps, the PLAN did maintain a naval infantry force, which consisted of several infantry and amphibious tank regiments.
When international disputes over the sovereignty rights of Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea began to emerge in the mid-1970s, the PLA once again sensed the need to deploy a force capable of maritime and amphibious operations. In 1979 the Marine Corps was re-established as a service arm in the PLA Navy to protect China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea region. In 1980 the first operation unit, 1st Marine Brigade, was formed in Hainan Island. In its early years, the PLA Marine Corps was mainly responsible for protecting the Woody Island (referred to as Yongxing Island in Chinese) in the Paracel Islands (referred to as Xisha Island in Chinese) and some reefs in Spratly Islands (referred to as Nansha Island) in the South China Sea.
PLA Marine Corps soldiers in the maritime camouflage combat uniform (Chinese Internet)
In response to the growing tension between China mainland and Taiwan in the 1990s, the Marine Corps has been expanded again, with the size of 1st Marine Brigade increased and its equipment upgraded. In July 1998, 164th Motorised Infantry Division of 41st Group Army in the PLA Ground Force was reassigned to the PLA Navy South Sea Fleet to form the second marine unit, 164th Marine Brigade, which is based at Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province. The armour elements in the Marine Corps was also enhanced with new amphibious tanks and armoured fighting vehicles being introduced to increase the corps’ capability to land on a heavily defended shore.
Before the mid-1990s, the Maine Corps viewed the South China Sea as its primary anticipated theatre. The force’s organisational structure and table of equipment mainly concentrated on island seizing scenario, which requires lightly equipped, specially trained infantry troops supported by engineers, heavy machine gunners, and flame throwers. However, as the centre of China’s military strategy has shifted more towards a possible military confrontation with Taiwan since the late 1990s, the PLA Marine Corps began to receive more heavy equipment such as light tanks, armoured vehicles and self-propelled artillery for amphibious raid or establishing beachheads in a heavily defended shore.
Organisational Structure
Each Marine Brigade is headed by a Senior Captain (equivalent to a Senior Colonel in the Army), who is assisted by a political commissar, a number of deputy commanders and a Chief of Staff. The brigade headquarters is composed of four departments: command, political, logistic and equipment. Like Army infantry brigades, marine brigades also have regiments as intermediate headquarters between brigade and battalion level. Each marine brigade has about 6,000 to 7,000 personnel.
Unlike the U.S. Marine Corps, the PLA Marine Corps does not possess its own aviation assets and relies heavily on the support of the air force and naval air force for close air support and airborne operations. The amphibious reconnaissance unit, also known as the 'Frogman Squad', is comparable to the U.S. Navy SEAL in terms of tactics and doctrines. Its members receive strict training in special operations warfare, martial arts, field surviving, parachuting, and airborne assault. The amphibious reconnaissance troops, also known as the frogmen, are experts in water diving. They regularly practice the procedure of leaving submarine via torpedo tubes, and long distance swimming in full battle gear.
Training
Commandoes of the PLA Marine Corps Amphibious Reconnaissance Unit (Chinese Internet)
Navy helicopters dropping Marine Corps soldiers behind the enemy line during the exercise (Chinese Internet)
All new and company-grade Marine Corps officers are trained in the Naval Marine Corps Tactics Command Department of the Guangzhou Naval Vessel Academy. The Marine Corps has several amphibious warfare training facilities located in Hainan Island, Zhanjiang and Fuzhou for physical, combat tactics, amphibious landing, and joint arms/services operation training and exercises. Enlists are specially selected with excellent physical conditions and at least high school education.
The Marine Corps conducts three types of training: technical training, tactics training, and psychological, physical and field-combat surviving training.
Technical training consists of basic knowledge for amphibious combat, swimming in full battle gear, reconnaissance, capturing enemy personnel, hand-to-hand combat, airborne landing and parachuting, using water and land loading and unloading equipment, driving combat vehicles, firing from shore-to-sea and sea-to-shore, and overcoming water and beach obstacles, as well as using survival equipment.
Tactics training consists of knowledge of services and branches, principles of tactics theory, individual and unit tactics, and combined arms tactics. It also includes the following:
Theory and principles of amphibious operations
Boarding landing vessels, crossing bodies of water, and loading and unloading equipment
Selecting loading sites and landing sites
Assaulting beaches, establishing beachheads, and breaking out from beachheads
Organizing and commanding pre-invasion night operations
Dealing with different terrain features
Planning, organizing, and commanding amphibious operations
Coordinating with other services and branches
Psychological, physical, and field-combat survival training consists of adapting to different types of conditions, including crossing long distances of water under difficult conditions and surviving under field combat conditions after landing on shore or on an island or reef.
In their first year of service the marine enlists receive tough physical training, including 3~5km barehanded swimming, 300m swimming with 20kg personal equipment and gear, and 5km land travelling with 25kg load in 20 minutes, as well as adaptation training in tropical forest, highland, desert and snow regions. The training in the second year mainly focuses combat tactics, field surviving, equipment operating, and specialised subjects such as combat medical, reconnaissance, field engineering, etc.
Operations
Armoured forces of the PLA Marine Corps in the attack after landing on the enemy beach during an exercise (Chinese Internet)
In a typical amphibious landing operation, following initial firepower preparations marine scouts and engineers will first arrive the landing zone by submarine and/or assault boats to clear sea/land mines and underwater obstacles. The scouts will provide the battlefield information for the landing ships. More marine soldiers will take amphibious armoured vehicles and air cushion landing crafts to land on enemy beach. They are also supported by self-propelled artillery guns and anti-armour and air defence missiles. At the same time, marine special operations forces will be airlifted by helicopters to land behind the enemy line. After eliminating enemy's guarding troops, the landing troops will establish a beachhead against enemy’s counterattacks until the heavily equipped Army troops arrive.
