China restructures its armed forces

Islamabad

In a major military reform, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday announced restructuring of its armed forces to convert into a formidable world force. The four Army headquarters by replacing them with 15 new agencies under the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the world's largest force is the hallmark of the new gigantic plan.According to a wire report, the new structure includes new commissions - discipline inspection, politics and law and science and technology - as well as the general office. The reform includes formation of five more divisions, administration, auditing, international cooperation, reform, organisational structure and strategic planning. There are six new departments, joint staff, political work, logistical support, equipment development, training, and national defence. Currently China has four army headquarters - staff, politics, logistics and armaments.

President Xi, who is also the chief of the ruling Communist Party of China and chairman of the CMC, met the new chiefs of each agency on Monday when he described the reshuffle as "a breakthrough" and called the new leadership system "a crucial step" toward a stronger military, the report said. This is part of major reforms initiated by Xi to revamp the 2.3 million-strong and the world largest military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Xi, 64, is widely regarded as the most powerful Chinese leaders in recent decades after Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping as he consolidated his power base heading the troika of president, CPC general secretary and chief of military. His reforms include retrenchment of 300,000 troops to make the force lean and mean. The reforms included renaming of the strategic missile force as PLA Rocket Force and Strategic Support Force to provide proper electronic and cyber intelligence backup for precision missiles strikes during war and elevated their status as independent force along with army, navy and air force.

As part of the reforms, the Chinese military has also for the first time integrated area commands looking after India and Pakistan. China has seven military area commands in Jinan, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Shenyang, Lanzhou and Guangzhou. Chengdu looked after security of India's Eastern sector in the Tibet region including Arunachal Pradesh while Lanzhou looked after the partly the western sector, including Kashmir region and Pakistan.

As per the new strategic zone plan, both Chengdu and Lanzhou gets integrated into strategic command region, making it perhaps the biggest areas for Chinese military. Lanzhou which looks after the border with Azad Kashmir and Afghanistan has been active in recent years battling the two way crossings of Uyghur Islamic militants from Xinjiang. The unified joint command system which Xi initiated will end the army dominated set-up with more roles for air force and navy which are on a massive modernisation. The overhaul is aimed at moving away from an army-centric system towards a western-style joint command in which the army, navy and air force are equally represented.