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SCMP: Which Chinese military units are expanding while others are shedding troops?

Mon November, 2021, Age: 2 years

China has expanded its combat forces to adapt to changing risks – despite a years-long push to streamline the People’s Liberation Army, according a Communist Party publication.

In a book of commentaries published in mid-November by the People’s Publishing House, military commentator Zhong Xin said the PLA had been “optimising” its personnel structure by deploying more troops to combat roles while cutting 300,000 positions.

The book focuses on President Xi Jinping’s reforms over the last decade and in it Zhong said the military now had about 2 million personnel, down from a peak of more than 6 million in the midst of the Korean war in the 1950s.