SCMP: Why a leaner, meaner PLA must be sensitive to worries about China’s military rise
* The PLA of the future will be ‘more capable of projecting its power to secure China’s national interests in the region and globally’, writes Collin Koh
Much of what needs to be said of the recent report on the People’s Liberation Army downsizing has been said. As part of the “transformational changes” undertaken so far, China’s army now accounts for less than 50 per cent of all PLA troops, with almost half of the non-combatant units made redundant and the officer corps slashed by 30 per cent.
By contrast, the navy, air force, rocket force and strategic support force combined now surpass the army in overall numbers.
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WNU Editor: I first saw Chinese soldiers in the mid-1980s. They were poorly dressed and they had sandals instead of shoes. They have gone a long way from that time. The Chinese Army is also not the only service in China undergoing reforms .... The Chinese Navy’s Marine Corps (Dennis J. Blasko & Roderick Lee, China Brief).
