Reduction of One Million Troops

After the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping demanded that national defense and military construction should free up resources to support the development of the national economy and should be modernized and regularized. The Sino-Vietnamese War in the 1970s and 1980s also exposed the problems of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Although the army obeyed the command of the Party, after ten years of the Cultural Revolution, factional struggles in the army seriously affected its combat effectiveness. After the Korean War, the People's Liberation Army experienced decades of peace, but the war against Vietnam exposed the serious weakening of the army's combat effectiveness. Issues such as the leadership, organization, combat training, officer-to-soldier ratio, age and quality requirements of cadres of the Chinese army have all become reform contents to be considered by the Central Military Commission (CMC). After the 1980s, the PLA carried out a series of reforms.^[1]

In 1982, the various technical branches of the CMC were reduced and merged into the branches of the General Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army, and the Railway Corps was transferred to the Ministry of Railways. While a large number of command organs were eliminated, electronic countermeasures forces were added and the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense was established to meet the needs of national defense modernization. In April 1983, the People's Armed Police was established.^[1] On 1 November 1984, a symposium of the Central Military Commission was held in Beijing. Deng Xiaoping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered a speech of nearly 90 minutes, proposing to further reduce the number of personnel by 1 million on the basis of several reorganizations of the army. This decision reflected the determination of the CCP Central Committee after judging the international and domestic political and economic situation. After the symposium, the Central Military Commission studied the reorganization plan of reducing personnel by 1 million based on the spirit of Deng Xiaoping's speech, determined to reform the system and organization, adjust the composition ratio, reduce cadres and support personnel, and eliminate outdated equipment.^[2]

From 23 May to 6 June 1985, the Central Military Commission held an enlarged meeting in Beijing. The main contents of the meeting, in addition to adjusting and selecting the leadership teams of the major military regions and making the military cadres younger, were to implement the task of reducing the number of military personnel by 1 million by the CCP Central Committee and the State Council, and to carry out streamlining, reorganization and system reform of the military.^[2] On 4 June 1985, Deng Xiaoping announced at the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission: "The number of personnel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army will be reduced by one million".^[3]: 112

Deng Xiaoping proposed reducing the army by 1 million for two main reasons. First, the People's Liberation Army was bloated, with each military region having a leadership team of more than ten or twenty people, and the structure was unreasonable, with an officer-to-soldier ratio of 1:2.6, which was far higher than that of other countries. At that time, China's military expenditure was very low, while the number of troops was too large, which directly restricted the development of the army's weapons and equipment and the improvement of its combat effectiveness. Reducing the army could save expenses, improve equipment, and improve the quality of the army. Another reason for reducing the army was based on the judgment of the international situation that there would be no major war in the short term, so more money should be freed up for construction, and "even if war breaks out, we must reduce the size of the army".^[4]