Xi stresses structural reform of military

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.

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. [Photo: Xinhua]

Xi, also 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.

A new structure will be established, in which the CMC takes charge of the overall administration of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the armed 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.