Reforms reach China’s military

BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/49

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports president Xi Jinping announced on November 24 to China’s top military officers that long-planned military reforms were finally underway. The goal is to reshape the military from Soviet-era structures to a Western-style organisation and operational capabilities, including larger roles for the navy and air force. Ground force command will be centralised from its current four branches and the number of military regions will be cut from seven to four. The reform gives more power to the central military committee led by president Xi, as well as the defence ministry’s role in oversight relative to military leadership.

SCMP estimated in September that the army’s size would shrink by 500,000 people to around one million. Additionally, the armed police force will form a national guard with about one million people.  China wants to complete most of its biggest military shakeup in decades by 2020.

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