Osprey - Elite 194 - The Chinese People's Liberation Army since 1949. Ground Forces.pdf

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The Chinese People’s
Liberation Army since 1949
Ground Forces
BENJAMIN LAI
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM HOOK
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
The Chinese People’s
Liberation Army since 1949
Ground Forces
BENJAMIN LAI
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM HOOK
Series editor Martin Windrow
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
4
CHRONOLOGY & KEY EVENTS
6
THE PLA TODAY
Militia
18
CURRENT TACTICAL ORGANIZATION
28
SOME KEY COMBAT ARMS
Unit
38
PERSONNEL
personnel
49
UNIFORMS & COMBAT EQUIPMENT
52
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
63
64
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
THE CHINESE PEOPLE’S
LIBERATION ARMY SINCE 1949
GROUND FORCES
INTRODUCTION
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (Zh ngguó Rénmín Ji fàngj n –
hereafter, PLA) is the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
It traces its origins to the Red Army of Workers and Peasants (G ngnóng
Hóngj n) that was established by the Nánch ng Uprising of August 1, 1927
by men of the Kuomintang army’s 24th Division led by General (later Field
Marshal) Zh Dé. August 1 is still regarded as “PLA Day” in China, and the
emblems of the PLA still bear the Chinese characters for 8 (B ) and 1 (Y ),
recalling the first day of the eighth month.
In the mid-1920s the Chinese communists were cooperating with the
then-dominant political force in the country, the Nationalist Party
(Kuomintang, KMT) led by Chiang Kaishek (Ji ng Jièshí), against various
regional warlord armies.
1
A series of disputes resulted in a split between the
CCP and KMT, and the first battle between them in August 1927. The
Nánch ng Uprising saw the defeat of the pro-communist troops; Zh Dé
then led them in a retreat to J ngg ng Mountain, where they were joined by
another defeated rag-tag army from the failed Autumn Harvest Uprising, led
by Máo Zéd ng. To crush this communist guerrilla force the KMT
established a series of encirclements, but the Red Army eventually broke out,
and in October 1934 embarked on their historic “Long March” that was
to end a year later in the mountainous desert plateaux of Yán n. These
soon became a CCP-controlled zone and stronghold, despite
continuous pressure from the Nationalist Army.
However, the Japanese invasion of northeast China in 1931,
and the 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident, prompted the creation
of a temporary “united front” by the CCP and KMT against the
Japanese (though this truce was not universally observed by
either side). During this time, the CCP established the Eighth
Route Army and the New Fourth Army; instead of preying on the
peasants like the armies of old, these forces drew support from
the rural populations, and were able rapidly to expand their areas
of control beyond Yán n. The KMT was soon faced with a two-
front war – on the one hand fighting the Japanese, on the other hand
having to divert resources to contain the CCP’s ever-expanding influence
over large areas of rural China.
1 See Osprey Men-at-Arms 463,
Chinese Warlord Armies 1911–30
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
The end of World War II in the Pacific in 1945 saw the start of the
Chinese Civil War proper, and the “Red” Army was then renamed as the
Chinese People’s Liberation Army. It was able to take advantage of large
quantities of leftover Japanese weapons and ordnance, and consequently its
military capability expanded considerably, to include for the first time large-
caliber artillery and tanks. The PLA progressed from guerrilla tactics to
set-piece battles, such as the campaigns of Liáoníng/Sh nyáng (Líaoshên
Zhànyì, 1948), Huáih i (Huáih i Zhànyì, 1948), and B ij ng/Tianjin (Píngj n
Zhànyì, 1949). These campaigns, in which the PLA destroyed 173 KMT
divisions and eliminated some 1.5 million Nationalist troops, essentially
sealed the victory of the CCP. In September 1949, Chiang Kaishek escaped
to the island of Taiwan with some two million supporters; he proclaimed
Taipei as the temporary capital of the Republic of China, and continued to
assert his government as the sole legitimate authority over all of China. On
the mainland, the CCP, with Máo Zéd ng at the helm, established the
People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949.
2
In the more than half-century since then, the PLA has expanded from an
ill-equipped, ground-only army into combined armed forces that include a
potent nuclear capability and steadily growing naval and air services. In the
early days the PLA drew its support from the Soviet Union and developed
largely along Soviet lines; however, the split between the two communist
powers in the mid-1960s saw China begin to embark on a self-modernization
program, eventually acquiring equipment originating in Israel, the United
States, Russia, Ukraine and France. Since the “opening” of China in the early
1980s the country’s economic success has also given the PLA a long-awaited
opportunity to modernize its bloated organization, demobilizing almost a
million soldiers in 1985. By the first decade of the 21st century the PLA has
been transformed from a largely conscript army modeled on Soviet lines into
an increasingly professional force more comparable to Western models.
2 See MAA 306,
Chinese Civil War Armies 1911–49
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