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China reduces army troops by half in modern overhaul
Beijing, Jan 22 (IBNS): China has reduced its army by an "unprecedented" 50 per cent and the number of its officers by 30 per cent, South China Morning Post said, citing the country's official Xinhua news agency.
“This new data is unprecedented in the history of the PLA – the army now accounts for less than 50 per cent 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 per cent,” it said.
“The Chinese military used to … operate following the model established in the Second World War... It had to be reformed and optimised to meet the pressing needs of the changing times and this is the purpose of the overhaul,” the report quoted said Shanghai-based military analyst Ni Lexiong.
According to the report, the President Xi Jinping had first announced the downsizing in 2015. China now has two million active service personnel, making its army the world's largest.
The Chinese military has five independent branches. These are the army, navy, air force, rocket force – the strategic and tactical missile operator – and strategic support force in charge of cyber, space, and electronic warfare.
The last two were established three years ago.
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