Personnel assigned to China's navy, air force, rocket force and strategic support force now combine to make up more than 50 percent of China's total force, overtaking the size of the army for the first time in history, according to reports.
The People's Liberation Army — the official name of China's armed forces — has completed a major part of its internal composition restructuring, Xinhua news agency reported Monday. The army is no longer the largest of the five Chinese military service branches, as the realities of 21st century conflict demand more than sheer size.
As of 2013, China's armed forces had a total of 2.3 million servicemembers. According to the South China Morning Post, there are currently 2 million active servicemembers.
Xinhua called the shrinking of the army “unprecedented.”
“The army now accounts for less than 50 percent of the total number of PLA troops; almost half of our non-combatant units have been made redundant, and the number of officers in the PLA has been reduced by 30 percent,” South China Morning Post quoted the PLA as saying in Xinhua.
The goal of the restructuring was for the military force to become more efficient and flexible in air, space and cyberspace domains. “In the old set-up, the PLA had too many officers. In this overhaul, all these officers must find new positions and adapt, or they will be made redundant,” Shanghai-based analyst Ni Lexiong…
