The People's Liberation Army

The People's Liberation Army, including strategic nuclear forces, army, navy, and air force, serves as the military of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is 2.8 million strong making this force the largest army in the world. The PLA was established in the 1920s as the military arm of the Communist Party of China. It was originally named the Red Army. The People's Liberation Army's insignia consists of a round device with a design of five stars and the Chinese characters "ba-yi" (August 1, the anniversary of the 1927 Nanchang Uprising), surrounded by wheat ears and cog wheels.(The use of the insignia is governed by the 1984 Military Service Law.) The People's Liberation Army fought proudly and diligently whether is was on her home turf or abroad. The Red Army, as it was also known, fought with vigor whether the war was directly related to them or if they were the pawn of the battling Soviet Union. This however paid off in the end for Mao Zedong and his troops for the People's Republic of China was recognized by the United Nations and Communism was their political regime. This was well deserved recognition for which the People's Liberation Army fought so valiantly.

Organization

Within the PRC government, the PLA maintains a semi-autonomous existence. The PLA reports not to the State Council of the People's Republic of China but rather to two Central Military Commissions, one belonging to the state and one belonging to the party. In practice, the two CMC's do not conflict because their membership is almost identical. By convention the chairman and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission are civilian members of the Communist Party of China, but they are not necessarily the heads of the civilian government. It was the case with both Jiang Zemin and Deng Xiaoping, that the retained the office of chairman even after relinquishing their other positions.

In contrast to other nations, the Minister of National Defense of the People's Republic of China is not the head of the military, and is in fact a rather low ranking official. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has several branches which include the Ground Forces; Navy (includes Naval Infantry (marines) and Naval Aviation); Air Force, Second Artillery Corps (the strategic missile force); People's Armed Police (internal security troops, nominally subordinate to Ministry of Public Security, but included by the Chinese as part of the "armed forces" and considered to be an adjunct to the PLA in wartime)

History

The People's Liberation Army was founded on August 1, 1927 during the Nanchang uprising. The uprising occurred when troops of the Kuomintang rebelled under the leadership of Zhu De and Zhou Enlai. This uprising took place after the end of the first Kuomintang-Communist alliance. They were known as the Red Army. Between 1934 and 1935, the Red Army survived several campaigns lead against it by Chiang Kai-Shek and engaged in the Long March. During the Sino-Japanese War, the Red Army was nominally integrated into the Chinese national army forming the Eighth Road Army and the New Fourth Army units. During this time, the Red Army used primarily guerilla tactics, but also fought several conventional battles with the Japanese and the Kuomintang. After the end of the Sino-Japanese War, the Red Army renamed itself the PLA and won a civil war against the Kuomintang.

During the 1950's, the PLA with Soviet help transformed itself from a peasant army into a more modern one. One of the earliest operations was the reoccupation of Tibet in 1950. In December 1951, the PLA 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 captured Seoul, but were subsequently pushed back to a line roughly straddling the 38th Parallel. The war ended as a standstill in 1953. In 1962, the PLA also defeated India in the Sino-Indian War. 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 in the Sino-Vietnamese War.

In the 1980s, the PRC shrunk its military considerably on the theory that freeing up resources for economic development was in the PRC's interest. Following the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, ideological correctness was temporarily revived as the dominant theme in Chinese military affairs. Reform and modernization appear to have since resumed their position as the PLA's priority objectives, although the armed forces' political loyalty to the Communist Party of China remains a leading concern. One other area of concern to the political leadership was the PLA's involvement in civilian economic activities. Concern that these activities were adversely impacting PLA readiness has led the political leadership to, with great success; remove the PLA's business empire. Beginning in the 1980s, the PLA tried to transform itself from a land-based power, centered on a vast ground force, to a smaller, mobile, high-tech military capable of mounting defensive operations beyond its coastal borders. The motivation for this was that a massive land invasion by Russia is no longer seen as a major threat, and the new threats to the PRC are seen to be a declaration of independence by Taiwan, possibly with assistance from the United States, or a confrontation over the Spratly Islands. In addition, the economic center of gravity of mainland China has shifted from the interior to the coastal regions and the PRC is now more dependent on trade than it has been in the past. Furthermore, the possibility of a militarily resurgent Japan remains a worry to the Chinese military leadership.

The PRC's power-projection capability is limited and one Chinese general characterized China's military as having "short arms and weak legs". There has however been an effort to redress these deficiencies in recent years. The PLA has acquired some advanced weapons systems, including Sovremmeny class destroyers, Sukhoi-27 and Sukhoi-30 aircraft, and Kilo-class diesel submarines from Russia. However, the mainstay of the air force continues to be the 1960s-vintage F-7 fighter. In addition, the PLA has attempted to build an indigenous aerospace and military