China's army: size, structure. People's Liberation Army of China (PLA)

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

The armed forces of the People's Republic of China are considered the largest army in the world, as of 2016, 2,300,000 people served in it. Over the past twenty years, China has become a serious player in the political and economic arena, so today the major world powers are showing a particularly keen interest in what is the structure and principles of the functioning of the armed forces of the PRC (the decoding of this abbreviation sounds like the People's Republic of China). Over the past two decades, the country has experienced a lot of unexpected leaps in economic, social and political terms, the reforms have also affected the armed forces. Within a few years, an army was created, which today is considered the third largest in the world.

History

It is worth noting that until now all data on the size, armament and structure of the Chinese army differ. Some sources talk about the unlimited power and aggressiveness of the Chinese authorities, about the predatory appetites of the Communist Party, and about the next world war. More serious publications urge not to exaggerate the possibilities of the Celestial Empire and citeexamples of the numerous failures of Chinese troops in the past.

The PRC Army was created on August 1, 1927 during the Civil War, when the Communists defeated the Kuomintang regime. Its modern name - the National Liberation Army (PLA) - it received a little later, after the Second World War. In 1946, only two military units were called that, and only from 1949 did the definition begin to be used in relation to all the PRC Armed Forces.

Interestingly, the army is not subordinate to the party, but belongs to two military Central Commissions - state and party. Usually they are considered a single entity and use the common name CVC. The post of head of the Central Exhibition Commission is very important in the state, so, in the 80s of the XX century, it was held by Deng Xiaoping, who actually led the country.

Passing service

As of 2017, the size of the Chinese army has slightly decreased from 2.6 million to 2.3 million, and this is a deliberate policy of the PRC authorities to optimize and improve the military forces, they plan to continue the reduction further. But, even despite the decline in numbers, the PLA remains the largest in the world.

According to Chinese law, citizens from the age of 18 are subject to conscription, after completing the service they remain in the reserve up to 50 years. The country has not had conscriptions in the usual sense of the word for a long time, every year hundreds of thousands of volunteers go into the army at will or are recruited. The age composition of the population of China quite allows this, because most of the country's inhabitants are from 15 to 60 years old.

Service here is considered a very prestigious occupation, therefore very strict requirements are imposed on soldiers and officers, and all disciplinary violations are seriously punished. Today, extended service has been abolished, and a contract system for a period of 3 to 30 years is being practiced instead. Conscripts are required to repay their debt to their homeland within two years.

Interestingly, people with tattoos cannot serve in the Chinese armed forces, according to the leadership, such frivolity spoils the image of the most powerful army. There is also an official directive against ministering to those who snore or are obese.

Structure

Despite the fact that the Chinese army is under the strict control of the Communist Party, the ideological influence on the military has recently decreased somewhat. The Central Military Council, unlike our Ministry of Defense, has much more powers, in fact, all control comes from there, and not from the chairman of the party. The 2016 reform somewhat changed the structure of control, now there are fifteen departments, each of which oversees a separate area and is subordinate to the CEC in everything.

Before the changes a year ago, the PRC army consisted of seven districts, but since 2016 they have been replaced by five military command zones, this system is organized based on the territorial principle:

1. Northern zone, the city of Shenya is considered to be the headquarters, four groups of the army are here to resist aggression from Mongolia, Russia, Japan and North Korea.
2. South zone:headquarters in Guangzhou city, it consists of three army groups that control the borders with Laos and Vietnam.
3. Western Zone: Headquartered in Chengdu, located in the central region of the country, its duties include ensuring security near Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as preventing possible threats from India.
4. East zone: Headquarters in Nanjing, controls the border with Taiwan.

The PRC Army (the abbreviation was given above) consists of five groups of troops: ground, air, navy, missile forces, and in 2016 a new type of troops appeared - strategic forces.

Land Army

The country's government annually spends on defense from 50 to 80 billion dollars, only the United States has a larger budget. The main reforms are aimed at optimizing the structure of the army, at its transformation in accordance with the requirements of the modern geopolitical balance of power.

The ground forces of the People's Republic of China are the largest in the world, with approximately 1.6 million personnel. The government plans to significantly reduce this particular type of troops. If earlier the PRC armed forces had the form of divisions, then after the reform of 2016, a brigade structure is expected.

The armament of the ground forces includes several thousand tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, howitzers and other types of ground guns. However, the main problem of the army is that most of the paramilitary equipment is physically and morally obsolete. The 2016 reform was just aimed atmodification of combat weapons of different levels.

Air Force

The Air Force of the PRC army ranks third in the world; in terms of the number of military equipment in use (4 thousand), China is second only to the United States and Russia. In addition to combat and accompanying aircraft, the country's armed forces have just over a hundred helicopters, a thousand anti-aircraft guns and about 500 radar posts. The personnel of the PRC Air Force, according to some data, is 360 thousand people, according to others - 390 thousand

The PRC Air Force traces its history back to the late 40s. XX century, and at first the Chinese flew Soviet-made aircraft. Later, the country's authorities tried to launch the production of their own aircraft, simply copying models according to the drawings of the USSR or the USA. Today, the construction of new aircraft, including unique fighters, is in full swing, and China plans not only to arm its own army, but also to supply equipment to other countries.

In China, there are more than four hundred military airfields, which can take much more pieces of equipment than exists now. The PRC Air Force includes several types of troops: aviation, fighter, bomber, assault, transport, reconnaissance, anti-aircraft, radio engineering and airborne.

Navy

The People's Liberation Army of China includes three fleets: the South, North and East Seas. Moreover, an active growth of forces in this direction has been noted only since the 1990s, until that time the government of the country did not invest heavily in its naval forces. ButSince 2013, when the head of the PLA announced that the main threat to China's borders comes precisely from the maritime space, a new era begins in the formation of a modern and well-equipped fleet.

Today, the Chinese Navy is composed of surface ships, submarines, one destroyer with naval aviation, as well as about 230,000 personnel.

Other troops

In the Chinese army, missile troops received official status only in 2016. These units are the most classified, weapons data is still a mystery. Thus, the number of nuclear warheads raises many questions from the United States and Russia. According to various estimates, the numbers range from 100 to 650 charges, some experts call several thousand. The main task of the missile forces is to counter possible nuclear strikes, as well as to practice pinpoint strikes against known targets.

In addition to the main branches, since 2016 the PRC army has included a special department dealing with electronic warfare and countering cyber attacks. Strategic support troops, according to some reports, were created not only to counter information attacks, but also to conduct reconnaissance actions, including on the Internet.

Armed police

According to the latest estimates, the size of the Chinese army was more than 2 million people, and almost half of them are part of the internal troops of the PRC. The People's Armed Militia consists of the following units:

• internalsecurity;
• protection of forests, transport, border troops;
• guarding gold reserves;
• public security troops;
• fire departments.

The duties of the armed police include the protection of important state facilities, the fight against terrorists, and during the war they will be involved in helping the main army.

Conduct exercises

The first large-scale exercises of the modern PRC army took place in 1999 and 2001, they were aimed at practicing landings on the coast of Taiwan, with this country China has long been in sharp territorial disputes. The maneuvers of 2006 are considered the most successful, when the troops of the two military districts were deployed a thousand kilometers, which proved the high maneuverability of the Chinese troops.

Three years later, in 2009, even more large-scale tactical exercises were held, where 4 out of 7 military districts were involved. The main task was to work out the joint actions of all types of the army using modern military equipment, aviation and naval forces. Every demonstration of China's military forces is watched by the whole world, over the past twenty years, the PLA has become a serious threat.

Military successes

The former merits of the PRC army are not impressive with great victories and strategic successes. Even in ancient times, China was conquered more than once by the Mongols, Tanguns, Manchus and Japanese. During the years of the Korean War, the PRC lost tens of thousands of fighters and did not achieve significant victories. As well as during the conflict with the USSR over Damansky Island, the losses of the Chinese far exceeded the losses of the enemy. The biggest success of the PLAachieved only during the Civil War, when it was formed.

The People's Liberation Army of China received a new round of development only twenty years ago, when the poor equipment and unpreparedness of the personnel were finally realized by the government and all measures were taken to reform the troops. The first steps were taken towards reducing the size of the army, in order to remove parts of the troops that were not directly involved in the defense. Now the main focus is on technical equipment and retraining of personnel.

Reforms

Over the past few years, the People's Republic of China has made a huge leap in the country's rearmament, which has never been analogous in world history. A powerful military infrastructure was created practically from scratch using the latest modern technologies. Today, the PRC annually produces up to 300 units of aviation equipment, dozens of submarines and much more. According to the latest data, the equipment of the PLA is moving much faster than even in NATO.

In 2015, the country demonstrated its military achievements to the whole world at the parade dedicated to the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Unmanned aerial vehicles, assault vehicles and anti-aircraft systems were presented here. The public continues to accuse China of directly copying the military equipment of other countries. So, the PLA is still armed with analogues of Russian SUs.

Interesting facts

Women have been serving in the PRC army since the formation of the PLA, but mostly occupy positions in medical orinformation departments. Since the 50s, the beautiful half of the Chinese people began to try their hand at aviation and the navy, and recently a woman even became the captain of a hospital ship.

Over the past sixty years, the insignia of the Chinese army has been constantly changing, once this system was even abolished and restored only in the 80s of the twentieth century. The modern device of military ranks was adopted in 2009, according to him, the following categories are distinguished:

• general;
• lieutenant general;
• major general;
• senior colonel;
• Colonel;
• lieutenant colonel;
• major;
• senior lieutenant;
• lieutenant;
• junior lieutenant;
• sergeant major of the first, second, third and fourth grade;
• senior sergeant;
• sergeant;
• corporal;
• private.

As you can see from the list, the rank system is very similar to the traditions of the Soviet armed forces. The modern form of the PRC army was first introduced in 2007, almost a million dollars was allocated for its development. The emphasis was on practicality and versatility, as well as on the beauty and presentability of the Chinese military.

Possible aggression

All countries are now very closely watching the increased power of the People's Republic of China, over the past twenty years, the country has made a huge leap in all directions. Today, the prefix "most" is applicable to the Celestial Empire almost everywhere: the largest number of people, the largesteconomy, the most communist country and the largest army.

Of course, such a militarization of China suggests a possible aggression on the part of this state. Experts disagree. Some hold the idea that the PRC has always had a problem of overpopulation, and in the future, perhaps the party will decide to conquer new lands. Serious pollution of nature is also added to the lack of territory; in some regions, the environmental issue is particularly acute (for example, in Beijing and Seoul). Some Russian politicians note the suspicious activity of the Chinese army near the borders with Russia, to which Putin unequivocally replied that he does not consider China a threat to our country.

Other experts argue the opposite, that the actions of the Communist Party are dictated by protective measures. In today's international situation, each country should be maximally prepared for aggression from outside. For example, China does not like NATO's activity in the Pacific Ocean and North Korea. Another issue that has long been topical in the PRC is the annexation of Taiwan, the island has been resisting communist expansion for several decades. But the party is in no hurry to resort to armed intervention, the economic impact on other countries becomes much more effective.