People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party and the primary armed forces of the People's Republic of China. It consists of four services—Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force—and four arms—Aerospace Force, Cyberspace Force, Information Support Force, and Joint Logistics Support Force. It operates under the CCP's absolute control and is led by the Central Military Commission with its chairman as commander-in-chief.
The PLA can trace its origins during the Republican era to the left-wing units of the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang, when they broke away in 1927 in an uprising against the nationalist government as the Chinese Red Army before being reintegrated into the NRA as units of New Fourth Army and Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The two NRA communist units were reconstituted as the PLA in 1947. Since 1949, the PLA has used nine different military strategies, which it calls "strategic guidelines". The most important came in 1956, 1980, and 1993. Politically, the PLA and the paramilitary People's Armed Police have the largest delegation in the National People's Congress ; the joint delegation currently has 281 deputies—over 9% of the total—all of whom are CCP members.
The PLA is not a traditional nation-state military. It is the armed wing of the CCP and controlled by the party, not by the state. The PLA's primary mission is the defense of the party and its interests. The PLA is the guarantor of the party's survival and rule, and the party prioritizes maintaining control and the loyalty of the PLA. According to Chinese law, the party has absolute control over the armed forces and the CMC exercises supreme military command; the party and state CMCs are practically a single body by membership. Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has also been the CMC Chairman; this grants significant political power as the only member of the Politburo Standing Committee with direct responsibilities for the armed forces. The Ministry of National Defense has no command authority; it is the PLA's interface with state and foreign entities and insulates the PLA from external influence.
Today, the majority of military units around the country are assigned to one of five theatre commands by geographical location. In addition to wartime arrangements, the PLA is also involved in the peacetime operations of other components of the armed forces. This is particularly visible in maritime territorial disputes where the navy is heavily involved in the planning, coordination and execution of operations by the PAP's China Coast Guard. The PLA is the world's largest military force and has the second largest defence budget in the world. China's military expenditure was US$314 billion in 2024, accounting for 12 percent of the world's defence expenditures. It is also one of the fastest modernizing militaries in the world, and has been termed as a potential military superpower, with significant regional defence and rising global power projection capabilities.
Mission
The PLA's primary mission is the defense of the CCP and its interests. It is the guarantor of the party's survival and rule, and the party prioritizes maintaining control and the loyalty of the PLA.In 2004, paramount leader Hu Jintao stated the mission of the PLA as:
- Consolidate the rule of the CCP
- Ensure sovereignty, territorial integrity, internal security and national development of the People's Republic of China
- Safeguard the country's interests
- Help maintain world peace
History
Early history
In 1925, the CCP's Central Military Department, was renamed the Central Military Commission. It was first led by Zhang Guotao who was replaced by Zhou Enlai in 1926 as head of the CMC. At the time of the First United Front, the CMC was not a unified military command structure but was more of an administrative liaison with other armed communist groups.The CCP founded its military wing on 1 August 1927 during the Nanchang uprising, beginning the Chinese Civil War. Communist elements of the National Revolutionary Army rebelled under the leadership of Zhu De, He Long, Ye Jianying, Zhou Enlai, and other leftist elements of the Kuomintang after the Shanghai massacre in 1927. They were then known as the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, or simply the Red Army. In 1934 and 1935, the Red Army survived several campaigns led against it by Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang and engaged in the Long March.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, the CCP's military forces were nominally integrated into the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, forming two main units, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. During this time, these two military groups primarily employed guerrilla tactics, generally avoiding large-scale battles with the Japanese, and at the same time consolidating by recruiting KMT troops and paramilitary forces behind Japanese lines into their forces.
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the CCP continued to use the National Revolutionary Army unit structures, until the decision was made in February 1947 to merge the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. On October 10, 1947, the "Manifesto of the Chinese People's Liberation Army" was published, renaming the new million-strong force the People's Liberation Army. The reorganization was completed by late 1948. The PLA eventually won the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Establishment of the People's Republic of China
After the establishment of the PRC, the PLA underwent a drastic reorganization, with the establishment of the Air Force leadership structure in November 1949, followed by the Navy leadership structure the following April.In this early period, the People's Liberation Army overwhelmingly consisted of peasants. Its treatment of soldiers and officers was egalitarian and formal ranks were not adopted until 1955. As a result of its egalitarian organization, the early PLA overturned strict traditional hierarchies that governed the lives of peasants. As sociologist Alessandro Russo summarizes, the peasant composition of the PLA hierarchy was a radical break with Chinese societal norms and "overturned the strict traditional hierarchies in unprecedented forms of egalitarianism" During the 1950s, the PLA with Soviet assistance began to transform itself from a peasant army into a modern one.
In the PRC's early years, the PLA was a dominant foreign policy institution in the country. Since 1949, China has used nine different military strategies, which the PLA calls "strategic guidelines". The most important came in 1956, 1980, and 1993.
In November 1950, some units of the PLA under the name of the People's Volunteer Army intervened in the Korean War as United Nations forces under General Douglas MacArthur approached the Yalu River. Under the weight of this offensive, Chinese forces drove MacArthur's forces out of North Korea and captured Seoul, but were subsequently pushed back south of Pyongyang north of the 38th Parallel. The war also catalyzed the rapid modernization of the PLAAF.
In 1962, the PLA Ground Force also fought India in the Sino-Indian War. In a series of border clashes in 1967 with Indian troops, the PLA suffered heavy numerical and tactical losses.
Before the Cultural Revolution, military region commanders tended to remain in their posts for long periods. The longest-serving military region commanders were Xu Shiyou in the Nanjing Military Region, Yang Dezhi in the Jinan Military Region, Chen Xilian in the Shenyang Military Region, and Han Xianchu in the Fuzhou Military Region. In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, the PLA abandoned the use of the military ranks that it had adopted in 1955. The Central Military Commission had deemed that ranks were an expression of bourgeois right and hierarchy which led to individualist attitudes, inequality, and a sense of disunity.
The establishment of a professional military force equipped with modern weapons and doctrine was the last of the Four Modernizations announced by Zhou Enlai and supported by Deng Xiaoping. In keeping with Deng's mandate to reform, the PLA has demobilized millions of men and women since 1978 and has introduced modern methods in such areas as recruitment and manpower, strategy, and education and training. In 1979, the PLA fought Vietnam over a border skirmish in the Sino-Vietnamese War where both sides claimed victory. However, western analysts generally agree that Vietnam handily outperformed the PLA.
During the Sino-Soviet split, strained relations between China and the Soviet Union resulted in bloody border clashes and mutual backing of each other's adversaries. China and Afghanistan had neutral relations with each other during the King's rule. When the pro-Soviet Afghan Communists seized power in Afghanistan in 1978, relations between China and the Afghan communists quickly turned hostile. The Afghan pro-Soviet communists supported China's enemies in Vietnam and blamed China for supporting Afghan anticommunist militants. China responded to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by supporting the Afghan mujahidin and ramping up their military presence near Afghanistan in Xinjiang. China acquired military equipment from the United States to defend itself from Soviet attacks.
The PLA Ground Force trained and supported the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War, moving its training camps for the mujahideen from Pakistan into China itself. Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of anti-aircraft missiles, rocket launchers, and machine guns were given to the Mujahideen by the Chinese. Chinese military advisors and army troops were also present with the Mujahideen during training.