Xi urges breakthroughs in military structural reform

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks at a meeting on reforming the armed forces in Beijing, capital of China. The meeting was held in Beijing from Nov. 24 to 26. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

BEIJING, Nov. 26 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged breakthroughs in reform of the country's armed forces by 2020, vowing to reorganize the current military administration structure and military command system.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks at a meeting on reforming the armed forces which was held from Nov. 24 to 26.

FROM MILITARY COMMANDS TO BATTLE ZONE COMMANDS

A new structure will be established, in which the CMC takes charge of the overall administration of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Chinese People's Armed Police and the militia and reserve forces; battle zone commands focus on combats; and different military services pursue their own construction, Xi said.

While urging the PLA to maintain "correct political direction," Xi outlined "a series of designs and arrangements" to consolidate the basic principle that "the Communist Party of China (CPC) has absolute leadership of the armed forces."

According to Xi, the CMC's "centralized and unified" leadership should be strengthened to ensure that supreme administration and command status belong to the CMC and the CPC Central Committee.

Xi cited measures designed to "integrate the administrative system and the joint battle command system," including a general command center for land forces and enabling the CMC to directly administer and command various military departments.

The current regional military commands will be adjusted and regrouped into new battle zone commands supervised by the CMC, Xi said.

The reform will establish a three-tier "CMC - battle zone commands - troops" command system and an administration system that runs from CMC through various services to the troops.

Currently, a majority of Chinese troops consist of 850,000 land forces, which are deployed in seven military area commands headquartered in Shenyang, Beijing, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Lanzhou.

The CMC, the top leadership organ of the Chinese military, exercises command and control over the seven military area commands, the Navy, the Air Force and the Second Artillery Corps through the four general headquarters.