Paramilitary forces of China

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The paramilitary forces of China are the military units and formations apart from the People's Liberation Army, the principal military force of the People's Republic of China. They are composed of three main forces, the People's Liberation Army reserve force, the People's Armed Police (PAP), and the Militia, and they act as auxiliaries to the active forces of the People's Liberation Army. They generally perform a wide range of roles. All together, the paramilitary has 98,854,000 troops, as of 2018. [1]

Contents

People's Armed Police

The People's Armed Police Force [2] [lower-alpha 1] is a Chinese paramilitary organization [3] :121 primarily responsible for internal security, riot control, counter-terrorism, disaster response, law enforcement and maritime rights protection [4] as well as providing support to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during wartime. [5] :87

Unlike the civilian People's Police, [lower-alpha 2] the PAP [lower-alpha 3] is a specialized paramilitary force reporting directly to the Central Military Commission (CMC). PAP officers and soldiers wear dark olive green uniforms, different from pine green uniforms of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) or the light blue and black uniforms of the People's Police.

Militia

The Militia (Chinese :民兵; pinyin :Mínbīng) [6] or Militia of China (Chinese :中国民兵; pinyin :Zhōngguó Mínbīng) is the militia part of the armed forces of China, the other two parts being the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police (PAP). [6] The Militia is under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and serves as an auxiliary and reserve force for the PLA. [7] It is one of the largest militias in the world.

People's Liberation Army Reserve Force

The 1984 Military Service Law stipulated the combination of the militia and the reserve service system. Military training for senior middle-school and college and university students commenced in 1984 as China sought to provide additional qualified reserve service officers. The reserve force consisted primarily of the militia and was organized into reserve-service divisions and regiments.

In 1987 China began to make reference to the National Defense Reserve Force, which apparently consisted of reserve soldiers (including all militia, demobilized soldiers, and specialized technical personnel registered for reserve service) and reserve officers (including demobilized officers and soldiers assigned to reserve officer service, college and university graduates, and civilian officials and specialized technicians). The Reserve, as of 2016, is made up of 510,000 reserve personnel of all ranks.

Production and Construction Corps

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XJBT; 新疆生产建设兵团; 新疆兵团), also known as Bingtuan ("The Corps"), trading with the external name China Xinjiang Group, [8] is a state-owned enterprise and paramilitary organization in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The XJBT was established in 1954 under the orders of Mao Zedong, and developed sparsely populated areas in its early decades, taking the model of the traditional tuntian system of setting military units in frontier areas. The XJBT was severely damaged during the Cultural Revolution, and was outright abolished in 1975, before being re-established in 1981, partly due to the Soviet-Afghan War. It re-established its economic dominance over Xinjiang afterwards, also being responsible for maintenance against the "three evils" (separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism). In its history, the XJBT has built farms, towns, and cities, provided land and employment to disbanded military units, and re-settled Han migrants from other parts of China in what has been called a campaign of assimilation.

See also

Notes

  1. abbreviation: PAP; Chinese :中国人民武装警察部队; pinyin :Zhōngguó Rénmín Wǔzhuāng Jǐngchá Bùduì
  2. Chinese :人民警察; pinyin :Rénmín Jǐngchá
  3. Chinese :武警; pinyin :Wǔjǐng; lit.'Armed Police'

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References

Citations

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  7. Military Service Law of the People's Republic of China Archived 2 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine , Chapter VI The Militia, Article 36: "The militia is an armed organization of the masses not divorced from production and is an assisting and reserve force for the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The tasks of the militia are: ..."
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Sources