China has ordered its armed forces to end all paid outside work within the next three years as part of a push to make the world’s largest standing military more professional and battle ready.
A Defense Ministry notice viewed Monday said both the regular army and the paramilitary People’s Armed Police would be covered under the ban. It identified no specific fields but is thought to mainly target military art troupes, publishing houses and hospitals that accept paying civilian patients.
The ban is a “major political task concerning the overall scope of military construction and development,” the notice said, emphasizing the need for officers and troops to adhere to the guidance of the ruling Communist Party headed by President Xi Jinping, who also leads the party and government commissions that control the armed forces.
The 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army was ordered more than a decade ago to divest itself from its vast business empire that included factories and transport firms and was viewed as fueling corruption and slack discipline.
The latest round of reforms have reorganized parts of the command structure and will reduce troop numbers by 300,000, mainly by culling non-combat units and those using outdated equipment.
The reforms are also seeing a shift away from the land forces, which now account for about 73 percent of total troop strength, and more toward the navy and air force that are seen as responsible for dealing with the main perceived threats to China’s interests – a conflict over control of the South China Sea and a move by self-governing Taiwan toward formal independence that China has threatened to respond to with force.
After decades of large annual increases, the defense budget is also growing at a smaller pace in line with lower growth in the overall Chinese economy.
Military spending will rise 7.6 percent this year, despite tensions with China’s neighbors over disputed portions of the South China Sea. The military budget of 954 billion yuan ($146.5 billion) keeps China in second place in global defense spending behind the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
While we’re wasting our military forces in the Middle Eastern deserts, this much larger threat is looming. We need to stomp ISIS like the bug that they are, so that we can successfully withdraw from the Middle East. Then we can start to plan what we’ll do about China and other major threats.
I believe Art is going in the right direction…Isis could also be a major distraction and a thorn in everyone’s side while a major threat makes ready a plan…Just suppose that N. Korea has the unthinkable that can reach us…That nut that’s in charge could be the start of the end….
If you know anything about the history of China, and clearly you do not, you would know that China has never invaded another country, yet has been the recipient of many aggressors seeking their huge natural resources… they want to do business, not attack foreign countries…
China does not have a huge natural resource, that is why it became the most Poluted country in the world. It offered to act as the global manufacturing country in return for unlimited natural resources……..Every thing that China makes is only possible, it it can get natural resources from the countries they sell most to, After working in China for the last
ten years, I can tell you that for five months or more during the Fall and Winter, the polution is so bad, you cannot see a
2oo floor hotel, from ten blocks away. It is mostly caused by its industries, burning up a half of the worlds industrial resources!!!! Want to live there?????
They are getting battle ready in order to stomp their military power in south china sea. Right now China is flexing its muscle to control the vast natural resources in south china sea which they are grabbing by force. China also has a problem of how they can feed their huge population. Currently, China is invading other countries by buying big business and real estate especially agricultural interest in order to secure the future of their feeding program. Their economic influence is so huge which is felt by ASEAN countries including Australia and New Zealand. They are starting to be battle ready, while the US is busy fighting ISIS, to secure their vested interest in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.
I would not insult bugs like that.
Please enough of to fear mongering !
Um… they attacked and invaded Tibet and India.
No fear mongering?
Sleep on, Sleep on, Sleep on.
And Vietnam.
DON’T FORGET KOREA AND VIETNAM TWICE THEY FOUGHT AGAINST US.
china has to fight us at sea. no land bridge for them to attack us on land. I don’t think that child in NK is serious about attacking us.
Wonder why now Get ” battle ready”.
Timing of orders.
Unless those SE Asian Islands??
China has millions of great people. It’s the leaders of the country that make China a bad nation. I really love my Chinese friends who have a restaurant of fine Chinese food.