 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 ] Next Last |
The People's Liberation Army (PLA; Traditional Chinese: 人民解放軍, Simplified Chinese: 人民解放军, pinyin: Rénmín Jiefàng Jun), including strategic nuclear forces, an army, navy and air force, serves as the military of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Its 2.5 million strong force makes it the largest army, in terms of sheer number of troops, in the world. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927, 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 八一 (pinyin: ba yi) ( August 1, the anniversary of the 1927 Nanchang Uprising), surrounded by wheat ears and cog wheels. (Use of the insignia is governed by the 1984 Military Service Law.)
| People's Liberation Army | |
|---|---|
| Military manpower | |
| Military age | 18 years of age |
| Availability | males age 15-49: 375,520,255 (2003 est.) |
| Fit for military service | males age 15-49: 206,000,000 (2003 est.) |
| Reaching military age annually | males: 10,973,761 (2003 est.) |
| Military expenditures | |
| Dollar figure | $12.608 billion (FY99) |
| Percent of GDP | 1.2% (FY99) |
|
Note: The actual amount of PRC military spending remains highly controversial. First, the military may get resources which are not listed in the official budget. Second, an agreement on the conversion factor used to convert military expenditures to dollars is quite difficult. | |
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 Chinazh-min-nan:Kok-bu-i The State Council (, pinyin: Guowuyuan) is the chief civilian administrative body of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the Premier and contains the heads of each governmental department and agency. There are about 50 mem but rather to two Central Military CommissionThe Central Military Commission refers to one of two bodies within the People's Republic of China. Unlike most national armies, the People's Liberation Army is not considered as just another ministry. Although China does have a Ministry of National Defenss, 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. However, the chain of command above the CMC can be quite unclear. The Party CMC is subordinate to the Secretary General of the Communist Party of China while the State CMC is nominally subordinate to the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China which in practice has very little control over the CMC. This lack of clarity in overall command of the PLA can cause great amounts of confusion during times of crisis such as during the Cultural RevolutionThe Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution ( Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: wu chn jie ji wen hua da ge ming, literally "Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution"; often abbreviated to wen hua da ge ming, literally "Great Cultural Revolu and the Tiananmen Protests of 1989. In the later case, the PLA was being given conflicting orders by the Party General Secretary Zhao ZiyangZhao Ziyang Birthday October 17, 1919 Birth place Huaxian, Henan Party Communist PRC Premier Order 6th Chinese Premier Term of Office: June 1983 ? November 1987 Acting premier September, 1980 ? June, 1983 Predecessor Hua Guofeng Successor: Li Peng CPC Gen and the Chairman of the state CMC, Deng XiaopingDeng Xioping ( Traditional Chinese; Simplified Chinese; Teng Hsiao-p'ing; pronounced "Dung Shyao-ping") ( August 22, 1904 February 19, 1997) was a revolutionary elder in the Communist Party of China (CPC) who served as the " de facto" ruler of the People'.
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 they retained the office of chairman even after relinquishing their other positions. All of the other members of the CMC are uniformed active officers.
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 usually rather low ranking military member of the CMC.
Under the CMC are the General Staff Headquarters, the General Logistics Department, the General Armaments Department, and the General Political Department. The GPD maintains a system of political commissars which maintain a separate chain of command to insure loyalty to the party and the civilian government.
Under the General State Headquarters are the seven military area commands: Shenyang, Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. The organization into MAC's has been much criticized as being obsolete and irrelevant for the 21st century, and there is wide speculation that the system will be drastically altered in the next several years.
Coordination with civilian national security groups such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is achieved primarily by leading group s of the Communist Party of China. Particularly important are the Leading group on foreign affairs, and the leading group on Taiwan.
Branches: People's Liberation Army (PLA), which includes 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).
See also:
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|