China Kicks Off Troop Cut

BEIJING --- "As the military reform is deepened, work in all aspects is being orderly pushed forward, and China’s troop reduction of 300,000 has also kicked off. Therefore, the number of military personnel transferred to civilian work has increased compared with those in the previous years," reported Military Report, a video program on China Central Television (CCTV) on March 22, 2016. 

"A division with the PLA 42nd Group Army carried out special education focusing on 'to leave or to stay, views on gain and loss, how to deal with difficulty ahead?' to help the officers and soldiers who might be transferred to civilian work remove their doubts and place the larger group interests above private interests," the video report gave an example. 

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Chinese president, and chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), announced at the ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War on September 3, 2015 that "China will cut the number of its troops by 300,000." 

Then the reform working conference of the CMC was held in Beijing from November 24 to November 26, 2015, officially marking the kick-off of the deepened national defense and military reform. 

According to Opinions of CMC on Deepening the National Defense and Military Reform, the overall objectives of this military reform are as follows: 

2015 was mainly devoted to the implementation of leadership management and joint operational command reform; 2016 will see military cuts, improved combatant personnel and reform of military academies and armed police forces, and basically fulfillment of the phased reform tasks; 2017 to 2020 will be devoted to further adjusting, optimizing and perfecting the reform in relevant fields, and to keeping pushing forward the reform in each field. 

The Opinions also pointed out that China should take the road of picked troops with Chinese characteristics and speed up transformation of the PLA from the quantity-scale type to the quality-efficiency type. 

The serving troops will be cut by 300,000, and the scale of the PLA will be gradually reduced from 2.3 million to 2 million. The proportion of the military services will be optimized, and the non-combat organs and personnel will be reduced. The number of officer posts will be reduced. 

The scale and structure of weapons and equipment will be optimized, the models and types of equipment will be reduced, old equipment will be eliminated, and new equipment will be developed, according to the Opinions.