Bitterness grows in Chinese military over large-scale troop cuts

[Zarvan]

Beijing: Bitterness is growing within China`s armed forces to President Xi Jinping`s decision to cut troop numbers by 300,000 and considerable effort will be needed to overcome opposition to the order, according to a source and commentaries in the military`s newspaper.

Xi made the unexpected announcement on Sept. 3 at a military parade in Beijing marking 70 years since the end of World War Two in Asia. The move would reduce by 13 percent one of the world`s biggest militaries, currently 2.3-million strong.

One government official, who meets regularly with senior officers, said some inside the People`s Liberation Army (PLA) felt the announcement had been rushed and taken by Xi with little consultation outside the Central Military Commission. Xi heads the commission, which has overall command of the military.

"It`s been too sudden," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"People are very worried. A lot of good officers will lose their jobs and livelihoods. It`s going to be tough for soldiers."

China`s Defence Ministry, in a statement sent to Reuters, said the "broad mass" of officers and soldiers "resolutely endorsed the important decision of the (Communist) Party centre and Central Military Commission and obey orders".

It has said the cuts, the fourth since the 1980s, would be mostly completed by the end of 2017.

Experts say the move is likely part of long-mooted rationalisation plans, which have included changing the PLA command structure so it less resembles a Soviet-era model and spending more money on the navy and air force as Beijing asserts its territorial claims in the disputed South and East China Seas.

Soon after Xi`s announcement, the official Xinhua news agency published a long article quoted soldiers as supporting the decision.

Each branch of the armed forces believed the cuts would raise quality standards, Xinhua said.

Commentaries in the PLA Daily newspaper have since warned that the reductions would be hard to carry out. Chinese state media often run commentaries that reflect the official line of the institution publishing the newspaper.

"UNPRECEDENTED" CHALLENGE

The cuts come at a time of heightened economic uncertainty in China as growth slows, its stock markets tumble and the leadership grapples with painful but needed economic reforms.

China has previously faced protests from demobilised soldiers, who have complained about a lack of support finding new jobs or help with financial problems.

A protest by thousands of former soldiers over pensions was reported in June, although the Defence Ministry denied any knowledge of the incident.

The PLA is already reeling from Xi`s crackdown on deep-seated corruption in China, which has seen dozens of officers investigated, including two former vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission.

Barely a week after the Beijing parade, the PLA newspaper said the troop cuts and other military reforms Xi wished to undertake would require "an assault on fortified positions" to change mindsets and root out vested interests, and that the difficulties expected would be "unprecedented".

If these reforms failed, measures still to come would be "nothing more than an empty sheet of paper", it said.

It did not give details on the planned reforms.

But state media has said they will likely involve better integration of all PLA branches. As part of this move, China`s seven military regions, which have separate command structures that tend to focus on ground-based operations, are expected to be reduced.

There had been no previous suggestion big troop cuts were planned.

TROOP ENTERTAINERS TO GO

Another commentary in the PLA Daily published a week later detailed the kind of opposition Xi faced.

"Some units suffer from inertia and think everything`s already great. Some are scared of hardships, blame everyone and everything but themselves ... They shirk work and find ways of avoiding difficulty," the commentary said.

A second government source, who is close to the PLA, said military song and dance assemblies, which traditionally entertain troops, would be the first to go.

"The defence budget will not be cut. It will continue to gradually increase," the source added.

China`s military budget for this year rose 10.1 percent to 886.9 billion yuan ($139.39 billion), the second largest in the world after the United States.

Some retired Chinese generals have supported the troop cuts.

"A bloated military can only cause ineffectual expenditure and forfeited battles," retired Major-General Luo Yuan, a prominent Chinese military figure, wrote in the Global Times newspaper three days after Xi`s announcement.

Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and now a senior army arms control advisor said: "Our country`s military needs to take the path of modernisation ... These force reductions are an effort to stay on this path and increase quality not numbers."

Reuters


First Published: Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - 03:31



Bitterness grows in Chinese military over large-scale troop cuts | Zee News

 

[shaheenmissile]

President Xi is a weird one i must say.
His policies are inconsistent with Chinese traditions

 

[BoQ77]

Understandable, policies under the pressure of budget cut.
FYI, Chinese troops now get the month salary,
It's different from ours.
============
Sorry, the thread focus more on the feeling of troops and officials cut.
Unemployment in the army.

Coincidence, GDP down 1 or few percent caused some dozen million of unemployed in the population too.
=============
First of all, economic reason !!!

 

[Dungeness]

President Xi is a weird one i must say.
His policies are inconsistent with Chinese traditions

Xi seems different because China can afford to be more assertive now. His policies is consistent with the best interest of Chinese people, and he enjoys support from the people.

 

[ganesh623]

Good step from china, to limit the spending on troops.

 

[TaimiKhan]

And the source is from India. Understandable.

I think its a good decision. Save the money and spent it on modernization and more better facilities to the operational strength. Plus they should look to cut strength from the tail side and nor the teeth. Teeth-tail ratio should be looked into.

 

[mpk1988]

President Xi is a weird one i must say.
His policies are inconsistent with Chinese traditions

??? Inconsistent with Chinese traditions? How and Why?

I think Xi is doing a great job and going for all inclusive Chinese growth.. Removing the stronghold of officials and encouraging democracy.. Make China a completely developed nation.

Along the way, he is sure to find roadblocks. Especially, the old brass of the CPC and the military. I can't comment much because the internal dynamics are pretty much unkiwn to most in the world. Just my 2 cents anyway.

 

[bdslph]

those who became solider only know the military
any one who is asked to leave should be given full pension and everything that way there wont be problem
and they should cut more slowly

 

[cirr]

If I were President Xi, I would cut the troops by 700000 while doubling the headcount for the navy and the airforce.

A 500000-man PLA Army is enough to deal with the like of India、Vietnam etc combined。

 

[FNFAL]

And the source is from India. Understandable.

No its not- Its reuters and thats British. Zee news simply rehashed the news. You may need to redo the "understandable" part again.
Here is the original link:
China military hints at strong opposition to large-scale troop cuts| Reuters

But i do agree with your point. China will not go the soviet way- it will simply burn itself up if tries to out spend US both on sheer manpower and resource intensive Hardware.

 

[Archie]

If USA can work with 1.4 Million Troops,
Then I am sure the Chinese can work with 2.0 Million

 

[dilpakistani]

Well China is rapidly moving to high tech modern army...and high tech army is much expensive to maintain... reducing number of foot soldiers will not weaken china... on contrary it would strengthen it many folds...

 

[TaimiKhan]

If I were President Xi, I would cut the troops by 700000 while doubling the headcount for the navy and the airforce.

A 500000-man PLA Army is enough to deal with the like of India、Vietnam etc combined。

Don't agree with a 500,000 manned army. AF& Navy should be strong in their own capacity, but a strong army is required to control the ground. We saw and seeing US in Afghanistan, their air assets are of quality, but with no boots on ground, they have lost the war. Same happened to them in Iraq. A strong army for external and internal threats is must. We are much small country area wise when compared to China, and we have 500K+ army which is not sufficient.

 

[gambit]

Don't agree with a 500,000 manned army. AF& Navy should be strong in their own capacity, but a strong army is required to control the ground. We saw and seeing US in Afghanistan, their air assets are of quality, but with no boots on ground, they have lost the war. Same happened to them in Iraq. A strong army for external and internal threats is must. We are much small country area wise when compared to China, and we have 500K+ army which is not sufficient.

Napoleon said something like this: "To know a nation's geography is to know its foreign policy."

Napoleon was not the first one to observe that correlation but probably was the first one to put it into understandable terms. A country's foreign policy inevitably affects how it create its military, which in turn that military formulate its doctrines and how to put those doctrines into working strategies and tactics.

Obviously, we do not expect a landlocked country to have naval warfare experts. Likewise, a country like China that borders multiple countries, some of them hostiles, and have multiple access points to the sea must have experts in both land and sea warfare. China did herself a gross disservice during the Mao era when Mao instituted the flawed concept of "The People's War", which was essentially a defeatist doctrine, where an adversary is allowed to invade, occupy areas of the land, and the Chinese people eventually rallied to fight a guerrilla war. That kind of warfare should have been the warfare of last resort, not first.

Would a 500,000 man standing army enough to secure the land mass that is China ? No, it is not. The US and China have comparable land mass and the US Army is over 1 million with about 800,000 readied reserves, not counting inactive reserves, of which every discharged man/woman must be in status for a certain amount of yrs. Most of China's wealth is concentrated on the sea coast so unless China have friendly neighbors like Canada and Mexico, that 500,000 man army is going to be spread thin. China cannot count on her navy alone to make viable threats to potential adversaries.

So is this a sign of China's future foreign policy ?

 

[TaimiKhan]

Napoleon said something like this: "To know a nation's geography is to know its foreign policy."

Napoleon was not the first one to observe that correlation but probably was the first one to put it into understandable terms. A country's foreign policy inevitably affects how it create its military, which in turn that military formulate its doctrines and how to put those doctrines into working strategies and tactics.

Obviously, we do not expect a landlocked country to have naval warfare experts. Likewise, a country like China that borders multiple countries, some of them hostiles, and have multiple access points to the sea must have experts in both land and sea warfare. China did herself a gross disservice during the Mao era when Mao instituted the flawed concept of "The People's War", which was essentially a defeatist doctrine, where an adversary is allowed to invade, occupy areas of the land, and the Chinese people eventually rallied to fight a guerrilla war. That kind of warfare should have been the warfare of last resort, not first.

Would a 500,000 man standing army enough to secure the land mass that is China ? No, it is not. The US and China have comparable land mass and the US Army is over 1 million with about 800,000 readied reserves, not counting inactive reserves, of which every discharged man/woman must be in status for a certain amount of yrs. Most of China's wealth is concentrated on the sea coast so unless China have friendly neighbors like Canada and Mexico, that 500,000 man army is going to be spread thin. China cannot count on her navy alone to make viable threats to potential adversaries.

So is this a sign of China's future foreign policy ?

Well said Sir, but prb is for now we don't know the details of how much and from where the cutting is to be done. Their army is 1.6M strong, with 0.5M reserve. May be they cut some of the active force and add more reserves in it and divert the funds to either increase navy or air force or may inject money into modernization. With the population China has i don't think they have a prob in having numbers, its maintaining it and then with it upgrading it. Few years back one of our ex-president cum army chief did the same, he announced to cut the force by 50K and inject money in modernizing the current force, but when we indulged in this WoT, we were having prb in keeping force at our eastern border and simultaneously do COIN ops, at which time the number of army was increased to counter this deficiency.

And from what limited info i have on China, i don't think they have any aggressive designs in near future thus may be cutting their troop strength and i believe for now they have no enemy strong enough to invade into their land.