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 were serving in it. Over the past twenty years, China has become a serious player in the political and economic arena, therefore, today the major world powers show a particularly keen interest in what the structure and principles of the functioning of the armed forces of the PRC (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, and the armed forces have also been affected by reforms. For several years, an army was created, which today is considered the third largest in the world in terms of power.
History
It is worth noting that so far all data on the size, armament and structure of the PRC army vary. Some sources claim the unlimited power and aggressiveness of the Chinese authorities, the aggressive appetites of the Communist Party and the imminent world war. More serious publications urge not to exaggerate the possibilities of the Celestial Empire and give examples of the numerous failures of the 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 so, and only in 1949 did the definition begin to be used in relation to all the armed forces of the PRC.
Interestingly, the army is not subordinate to the party, but refers to two military Central Commissions - state and party. Usually they are considered a single whole and use the common name CVK. The post of the head of the Central Exhibition Complex is very important in the state, so, in the 80s of the XX century, he was occupied by Deng Xiaoping, who actually led the country.
Service Passage
As of 2017, the size of the Chinese army slightly decreased from 2.6 million to 2.3 million, and this is the intentional policy of the PRC authorities to optimize and improve the military forces, they plan to continue the reduction further. But, despite the decline in numbers, the PLA remains the largest in the world.
According to Chinese law, citizens from 18 years of age are subject to draft, after serving, they remain in stock for up to 50 years. Calls in the ordinary sense of the word have not been held in the country for a long time, every year hundreds of thousands of volunteers join the army at will or are recruited. The age structure of the population of China 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 demands are made on soldiers and officers, and all disciplinary violations are seriously punished. Today, long-term service is abolished, and instead a contract system is practiced for a period of 3 to 30 years. Conscripts are obliged to repay 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. And there is also an official directive prohibiting serving those who snore or are obese.
Structure
Despite the fact that the PRC army is under the strict control of the Communist Party, the ideological influence on the military has recently decreased slightly. The Central Military Council, unlike our Ministry of Defense, has much more authority, in fact, all control comes from there, and not from the party chairman. The 2016 reform has slightly changed the control structure, now there are fifteen departments, each of which supervises a separate area and is subordinate to the Central Exhibition Complex in everything.
Before the changes a year ago, the PRC army consisted of seven districts, but since 2016 they were replaced by five zones of military command, this system is organized on the basis of the territorial principle:
- The northern zone, the headquarters is the city of Shenya, the four army groups here must resist aggression from Mongolia, Russia, Japan and North Korea.
- Southern zone: headquarters in the city of Guangzhou, it consists of three army groups that control the borders with Laoss and Vietnam.
- Western zone: headquarters in Chengdu, located in the central region of the country, its responsibilities include ensuring security near Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as preventing possible threats from India.
- Eastern zone: headquarters in Nanjing, controls the border with Taiwan.
The PRC army (the abbreviation was deciphered above) consists of five groups of troops: land, air force, navy, missile forces, and also in 2016 a new type of troops appeared - strategic troops.
Army army
The government of the country spends between $ 50 and $ 80 billion each year on defense, with the United States having 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 employees. The government plans to significantly reduce this particular type of troops. If earlier the armed forces of the PRC had the form of divisions, then after the 2016 reform a brigade structure is supposed.
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 paramilitary equipment is physically and morally obsolete. The reform of 2016 was just aimed at modifying a military weapon of various levels.
Air Force
The Chinese Air Force occupies third place 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 related aircraft, the country's armed forces have a little over a hundred helicopters, a thousand anti-aircraft guns and about 500 radar posts. According to some sources, the personnel of the Chinese Air Force is 360 thousand people, according to others - 390 thousand.
The air forces of the PRC trace their history from the end of the 40s. XX century, and at first the Chinese flew on Soviet-made aircraft. Later, the country's authorities tried to arrange the release of their own air equipment, 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, the PRC 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 exist now. The air forces of China include several types of troops: aviation, fighter, bomber, assault, transport, reconnaissance, anti-aircraft, radio engineering and airborne assault forces.
Naval forces
The People's Liberation Army of China includes three fleets: the South, North and East Sea. Moreover, an active growth of forces in this direction was noted only from the 1990s, until that time the country's government had not invested heavily in its naval forces. But since 2013, when the head of the PLA announced that the main threat to the Chinese borders comes from the sea, a new era begins in the formation of a modern and well-equipped fleet.
Today, the Chinese Navy includes surface ships, submarines, one destroyer with naval aviation, as well as about 230 thousand personnel.
Other troops
In the PRC army, missile forces received official status only in 2016. These units are the most classified, weapons data is still a secret. So, a lot of questions from the USA and Russia are caused by the quantity of nuclear warheads. 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 counteract possible nuclear strikes, as well as to develop precision strikes against previously known targets.
In addition to the main genera, 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 recent estimates, the strength 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 Police consists of the following units:
- internal security;
- protection of forests, vehicles, border troops;
- protection of gold reserves;
- public security forces;
- 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 brought in to help the main army.
Conducting exercises
The first large-scale exercises of the modern army of the PRC 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 forces.
Three years later, in 2009, even larger large-scale tactical exercises took place, where 4 out of 7 military districts were involved. The main task was to develop joint actions of all types of army using modern military equipment, aviation and naval forces. Every demonstration of the military forces of China is watched by the whole world; over the past twenty years, the PLA has become a serious threat.
Military success
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, Tangoons, Manchuzhuras and Japanese. Over the years of the Korean War, the PRC lost tens of thousands of fighters and did not achieve significant victories. As during the conflict with the USSR over Daman Island, the losses of the Chinese far exceeded the losses of the enemy. The PLA achieved its greatest success only during the Civil War, when it was formed.
The Chinese people's liberation army received a new round of development only twenty years ago, when poor equipment and unpreparedness of personnel were finally realized by the government and all measures were taken to reform the troops. The first steps were taken in the direction of reducing the size of the army, with the aim of removing the units of troops that were not directly involved in the defense. Now the main emphasis is on technical equipment and retraining of personnel.
The reform
Over the past few years, the People's Republic of China has made a huge leap in re-equipping the country, analogues of which have not yet been in world history. Almost from scratch, a powerful military infrastructure was created according to the latest modern technologies. Today, China annually produces up to 300 units of aircraft, dozens of submarines and much more. According to recent reports, 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 vehicles, airborne vehicles and anti-aircraft systems were presented here. The public does not cease to accuse China of directly copying military equipment from other countries. So, the PLA is armed with analogues of Russian SU today.
Interesting Facts
In the PRC army, women have been serving since the formation of the PLA, but mainly occupy positions in the medical or information departments. Since the 50s, the beautiful half of the Chinese people began to try themselves in 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 PRC army has constantly changed, once this system was even abolished and restored only in the 80s of the twentieth century. The modern structure of military ranks was adopted in 2009, according to it, the following categories are distinguished:
- the general;
- lieutenant general;
- major general;
- senior colonel;
- Colonel
- lieutenant colonel;
- major;
- senior lieutenant;
- lieutenant;
- Ensign;
- sergeant major of the first, second, third and fourth category;
- staff Sergeant;
- sergeant;
- corporal;
- private.
As can be seen 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.
