Far from weakening the country's military cornerstone, the downsizing of China's standing army signals a massive, well-planned effort to modernize the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and bring about a sweeping change in the Chinese military's defensive outlook, according to PLA insiders.

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When China's President Xi Jinping pledged in September to slash the ranks of the PLA by some 300,000 troops, he did not elaborate on the reasons for the reduction. This allowed speculations to flourish, with some even suggesting the move was a bid to show the international community that China is disinterested in expanding its military force.

But now, signs of a modernization program that were long underway have surfaced, and sources from within China's military establishment have said that Beijing is investing sizable resources into a program to upgrade China's military capabilities.  

Members of China's military establishment -- who ironically use the term "disarmament" to describe the PLA's restructuring -- say the effort will bring China's fighting forces to the cutting edge of new military technology.

"We have to concentrate more effort on quality," Chen told the state-funded PLA Daily recently. "Since the 1990s, the PLA has been shifting from a labor-intensive to a tech-intensive [force]. The disarmament has the purpose of adjusting the army to allow for greater multi-tasking."

In a blog written for the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Erickson of the US Naval War College suggests that the goal of the restructuring is to allow China's armed forces to "prevail in nearby maritime crises" and fight local war under "informatized" conditions.   

"These are the types of high-end contingencies currently of greatest concern to China's leadership because it judges them, respectively, most likely to erupt and most likely to threaten vital national interests," Erickson says.

Beset by maritime disputes over its territorial claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea, Beijing does not conceal the fact that it wants the PLA navy to become a major maritime power. China's top policymakers reportedly allocate about a third of the country's $165 billion defense budget for the maintenance of the PLA's fast-growing naval fleet.

News China Magazine estimates that some 1.6 million personnel are currently assigned to PLA ground forces, while China's naval forces command a relatively small 235,000 personnel. Chinese military insiders look to a shift in the balance in the near future.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an officer in the PLA hints that the downsizing of the PLA's ground forces will actually pave the way for an increase in air force and naval weapons and personnel. 

"The disarmament will not weaken our military capacity, but rather enhance it by renewing and upgrading weaponry," the officer tells News China Magazine.  "Numbers in some [military] branches will not be reduced, but will in fact increase."

Erickson meanwhile says that the PLA modernization program will go well beyond personnel and weaponry. China's entire military command system will undergo a drastic restructuring following Xi's vision for China's armed forces, he claims. 

"Xi has a clear, ambitious vision for PLA reform and is willing to take temporarily unpopular steps to implement it, such as removing even the highest-level officers he perceives as undisciplined and obstacles to reform," Erickson says. 

Some in China's military establishment appear to follow a similar line of thinking.  Xu Guangyu, a retired PLA major general now working for the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, says the PLA in fact plans to reshuffle its command structure.

"The current command structure has a large head and stumpy legs, slowing down military response times, which would have fatal consequences in wartime," Xu is quoted by News China Magazine as saying. "I suggest the PLA sets up a cross-service command center that could coordinate actions across all branches, just as the US military does."   

TagsPeople's Liberation Army Navy, Chinese naval forces, downsizing, PLA downsizing