Chinese Military Reform in the Age of Xi Jinping: Drivers, Challenges, and Implications

Abstract

Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has embarked on its most wide-ranging and ambitious restructuring since 1949, including major changes to most of its key organizations: The general departments were disbanded, new Central Military Commission (CMC) departments created, and a new ground force headquarters established; Seven military regions were restructured into five theater commands aligned against regional threats. Commanders will be able to develop joint force packages from army, navy, air force, and conventional missile units within their theaters; PLA service headquarters are transitioning to an exclusive focus on organize, train, and equip missions and will no longer have a primary role in conducting operations. However, the PLA is still figuring out how the new relationships among the CMC, services, and theaters will work in practice; The restructuring will also reduce the size of the PLA by 300,000 soldiers, cutting the ground forces and increasing the size of the navy and air force. The restructuring reflects the desire to strengthen PLA joint operations capabilitieson land, at sea, in the air, and in the space and cyber domains; The centerpiece of the reforms is a new joint command and control structure with nodes at the CMC and theater levels that will coordinate Chinas responses to regional crises and conduct preparations for wartime operations; A Strategic Support Force has been established to provide command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to commanders and will oversee space, cyber, and electronic warfare activities. A Joint Logistics Support Force will provide logistics support to units within the theaters; The creation of a joint command system complements other recent changes supporting joint operationsincluding joint training, logistics, and doctrinal development.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2017
Accession Number
AD1030342

Entities

People

  • Joel Wuthnow
  • Phillip C. Saunders

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Command And Control
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Doctrine
  • Employment
  • Geographic Regions
  • Law
  • Military Education
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Students
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Microelectronics
  • Space