Paramilitary forces of China
The paramilitary forces of China are the military units and formations apart from the
People's Armed Police
The Chinese People's Armed Police Force (PAP) is a paramilitary force primarily responsible for
Militia
The role of the Militia and the degree of party and PLA control over it have varied over the years. Nowadays, the Militia numbers some 3 million service men and women. During the 1940s the militia served primarily as a PLA support force. After 1949 the party consolidated control over the country and gradually used the militia to maintain order and help the PLA with defense of the borders and coast. In the mid-1950s Minister of National Defense Peng Dehuai attempted to build a reserve system incorporating the militia.
Peng's efforts were thwarted when the party expanded the militia, assigning it duties as a production force and internal security force during the
The
In 1987 the militia was controlled by the PLA at the military district level and by people's armed forces departments, which devolved to civilian control at the county and city levels as part of the reduction in force. The militia was a smaller force than previously, consisting of 4.3 million basic or primary—armed—militia, and the 6-million-strong general or ordinary militia. The basic militia was made up of men and women aged eighteen to twenty-eight who had served or were expected to serve in the PLA and who received thirty to forty days of military training per year.
The basic militia included naval militia, which operated armed fishing trawlers and coastal defense units, as well as specialized detachments, such as air defense, artillery, communications, antichemical, reconnaissance, and engineering units, which served the PLA. The ordinary militia included men aged eighteen to thirty-five who met the criteria for military service - they received some basic military training but generally were unarmed.
The ordinary militia had some air defense duties and included the urban militia. Efforts were made to streamline militia organization and upgrade militia weaponry. By 1986 militia training bases had been established in over half the counties and cities in the nation.
The militia's principal tasks in the 1980s were to assist in production, to undergo military training, and to defend China's
People's Liberation Army Reserve Service
The 1984 Military Service Law stipulated the combination of the militia and the reserve service system.
In 1987 China began to make reference to the National Defense Reserve Force, which apparently consisted of reserve soldiers (including all militia,
Production and Construction Corps
Before the
Unlike the militia, Production and Construction Corps personnel were full-time and uniformed. The PLA took over the Production and Construction Corps during the Cultural Revolution, then civilianized it in the 1970s. In the 1980s the corps appeared to have been abolished except in
See also
- Central Military Commission (China)
- List of countries by number of total troops
- Paramilitary forces of India
References
Citations
- ^ "China's Armed Forces, CSIS (Page 24)" (PDF). 2006-07-25. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 11, 2010.
- ^ CHINA’S IRREGULAR APPROACH TO WAR: THE MYTH OF A PURELY CONVENTIONAL FUTURE FIGHT David Knoll, Kevin Pollpeter and Sam Plapinger, Modern War Institute at West Point, April 27, 2021 Archived June 1, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
Sources
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division. [1]
Further reading
- Andy Bunk. Forgotten A look at the changing roles of the Chinese militia system in the Communist era from its inception to the present.
External links
- People's Armed Police SinoDefence.com