PLA to announce overhaul: five 'strategic zones' will replace regional commands

Razor

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PLA to announce overhaul: five 'strategic zones' will replace regional commands, most army HQ to be scrapped

The People’s Liberation Army is close to announcing how it will be organised into five new “strategic zones” and the army’s four headquarters regrouped, according to sources, as part of a huge overhaul to modernise and improve the efficiency and combat readiness of the military.

General Liu Yuan, political commissar of the PLA’s General Logistics Department, one of the army’s four headquarters, wrote a farewell letter to staff on Wednesday saying he would be “the last political commissar of Logistics” and that he would “absolutely obey the reforms”, introduced by President Xi Jinping.

Liu’s farewell was circulated among Beijing military officials and was posted by Luo Yuan, a retired PLA major general, on his social media account.

The letter indicated that the army’s powerful Central Military Commission, chaired by Xi, would scrap three of the four army headquarters: the General Political department, General Logistics and General Armaments. Only the General Staff department stays.

The South China Morning Post reported in September that the PLA military overhaul included plans to consolidate the seven regional commands into five units and to reorganise the four army headquarters.

One of the sources said that Liu was likely to be the secretary of the new military discipline inspection commission.

The most striking features of the proposals for the five new military zones are a vast new West zone that makes up more than half the country and a larger North zone that will concentrate on Mongolia, the Russian Far East and the Korean peninsula.

The Post reported on Tuesday that the changes to the old military command system were expected to be completed by the end of the month and that the new five strategic areas, also referred to as combat zones, could be up and running as early as January 1.

Sources said plans were nearing completion for the new West zone – by far the largest of the five – to include more than a third of the nation’s land-based military.

The area is home to only 22 per cent of the country’s population, many from the ethnic minorities groups and non-Han Chinese.

“The West combat zone will concentrate on threats in Xinjiang (新疆) and Tibet and other minority areas, close to Afghanistan and other states that are home to training bases for separatists, terrorists and extremists,” one of the sources said.

Another source close to the army said the proposal had been revised in recent weeks to move the West zone headquarters to Urumqi instead of Chengdu or Lanzhou.

President Xi announced in September the PLA would be cut by 300,000 troops to two million by 2017. Sources said up to 70 per cent of forces axed would be officers in land-based units.

A source in Jinan (濟南) said that so far it had been confirmed that the 13 army groups based in the current Beijing, Shenyang (瀋陽), Nanjing (南京) and Guangzhou military commands would be kept.

The Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong said the PLA was trying to learn from the US and Russian armies by shifting from the traditional divisional structures to the more nimble and efficient brigade system, with personal strength of each combat group decreasing from 15,000 to about 4,500 personnel.

“If the PLA is going to meet international standards, it’s a must that all the existing army groups should further be downsized to divisions,” Wong said.

He added that the PLA had started to carry out similar reforms since 1998.

“Officials from army units are the key opposition force hindering the overhaul. The sweeping reforms will go smoothly only when commanders of army groups are willing to give way.”

The Guangzhou and Nanjing commands have been renamed South and East zones.

The Jinan command has been included in a large Central zone that will mainly protect Beijing, while the North zone will include all the northeast provinces and Inner Mongolia.

“The top priority of the Central zone will be to focus on protecting the capital and let the North zone concentrate on issues with Mongolia, Russia and North Korea,” the source said. Beijing believed the Korean peninsular nuclear issue would prove more challenging under Kim Jong-un’s leadership, the source added.

The East and South combat zones, which also house the PLA’s key naval bases, would be responsible for China’s maritime security in the East and South China seas, one source said.

Hong Kong-based military expert Liang Guoliang said these latest plans could still be revised at the last minute.

“It’s possible that the PLA will change their plans at any time as all the officials must obey without question whatever the party and the CMC wishes to do,” Liang said.

He cited the example of when Deng Xiaoping decommissioned one million troops in the 1980s, which saw Chengdu (成都)military command – originally tipped to be scrapped – eventually retained. At the time the neighbouring Kunming military command was tipped to usurp Chengdu, but was amalgamated with Chengdu.


So looks like West S.R. for India/Pak/C. Asia/ Separatism. East S.R for Taiwan issue. South S.R for Islands issue. Centra S.R. to protect Capital. North S.R. for Russia, N. Korea.
Note that HQ of West S.R. is Urumqi not Chengdu.

Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/dipl...-liberation-army-be-split-five-combat-regions

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Sakal Gharelu Ustad

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So, they are consolidating forces to counter India and removing any potential misalignment of objectives on western theatre.

I do not know how much they will gain by this exercise.
 

amoy

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That's very different from what I saw, mainly ~~
1) there's no "central" strategic zone. Streamlined into 4 not 5.
2) South n East are larger
3) West is headed from Chengdu not Urumqi.



Along with the army cut by 300,000

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Razor

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That's very different from what I saw, mainly ~~
1) there's no "central" strategic zone. Streamlined into 4 not 5.
2) South n East are larger
3) West is headed from Chengdu not Urumqi.



Along with the army cut by 300,000

~~Still waters run deep. ~~from my MiPad using tapatalk
Yes, I saw that too with 4 SRs and chengu instead of Urumqi, about a week or two back; and actually on the same website.

But this is article is from 2 days back so I thought this was the updated version. And even in this article it says last minute revisions are possible.
 

Rowdy

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Interesting........... So maximum threat is from Sepratists + India + tibet according to china.
 

rockey 71

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The change into West SZ does not look India targeted. They are more concerned with separatists, internal security and Taiwan.
 

no smoking

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Interesting........... So maximum threat is from Sepratists + India + tibet according to china.
On the contrary, these objects are the threats that Chinese concerns least. That is why they assign all these into a single strategic zone.
 

amoy

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Division of 5 military commands finalized ~ west, north, central, southeast and south



~~Still waters run deep. ~~from my MiPad using tapatalk
 

blueblood

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Division of 5 military commands finalized ~ west, north, central, southeast and south



~~Still waters run deep. ~~from my MiPad using tapatalk
I don't understand.

Will the deployed force remain constant in this new system or will larger theater have larger force deployed?

I mean Chengdu region + Lanzhou region ≈ West SR which the article suggests will be more than 1/3rd of the current (?) strength so what is the present strength.
 

Razor

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Chinese Defector Reveals Beijing’s Military, Government Secrets

Ling Jihua, pictured, provided sensitive documents to his Brother, Defector Ling Wancheng
by Bill Gertz

A defector from China has revealed some of the innermost secrets of the Chinese government and military, including details of its nuclear command and control system, according to American intelligence officials.

Businessman Ling Wancheng disappeared from public view in California last year shortly after his brother, Ling Jihua, a former high-ranking official in the Communist Party, was arrested in China on corruption charges.

Ling Wancheng, the defector, has been undergoing a debrief by FBI, CIA, and other intelligence officials since last fall at a secret location in the United States, said officials familiar with details of the defection who spoke on condition of anonymity. The defector is said to be a target of covert Chinese agents seeking to capture or kill him.


Among the information disclosed by Ling are details about the procedures used by Chinese leaders on the use of nuclear weapons, such as the steps taken in preparing nuclear forces for attack and release codes for nuclear arms.


Other secrets revealed included details about the Chinese leadership and its facilities, including the compound in Beijing known as Zhongnanhai. That information is said to be valuable for U.S. electronic spies, specifically for cyber intelligence operations targeting the secretive Chinese leadership.

Spokesmen for the White House, FBI, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the case.
Other officials said Ling defected sometime in the summer of 2015 after his brother, once the senior administrative aide to former Chinese leader Hu Jintao, came under suspicion for leaking state secrets.

Intelligence officials said Ling, if confirmed as a legitimate defector in debriefings over the next several months, would have the most privileged information of any defector from China to the United States in more than 30 years.
“This is an intelligence windfall,” said one senior official.

Source>>
 

amoy

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yes @Razor the upper one of below is the new structure of theater commands .



Happy New Year!
 

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