China’s Army-PLAmodernizing to a world class military power

Published: August 01,2024

By Staff writer 

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army celebrates 97^thanniversary this year after being founded on August1, 1927. According to historians, the PLA traces its origin to the 1927 Nanchang Uprising. At first named the Red Army, its numbers kept increasing under Mao Zedong and Zhu De from an estimated 5,000 troops in 1929 to 200,000 in 1933. 

After rebuilding its strength, a large portion of it, the Eighth Route Army, fought with the Nationalists against the Japanese in northern China. After World War II, the communist forces, renamed the People’s Liberation Army, defeated the Nationalists, making possible the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

According to World Population Review research on military size by country, China has an estimated, 2,185,000 active military personnel and 1,170, 000 reservists, making the PLA to be the largest military in the world. China is the largest troop contributing country among the permanent membes of the UN Security Council. The PLA is involved in various UN peace keeping missions all over the world and China is   the second largest financial supporter of UNpeacekeeping programs. This is a concrete example of China’s commitment to global peace and security. In 2018, China established its own Peacekeeping Affairs Centre to coordinate international cooperation, manage, train and hold seminars for its UN peacekeeping troops deployment.  

The PLA has underpinned the efforts to protect the country’s national sovereignty, security and development interests, and made significant contributions to safeguarding peace and tranquility in the world. The PLA Navy has dispatched  naval ships  to carry out escort operaions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the coast of Somalia  in line with relevant UN Security Council resolutions. As of June 2024, China’s armed forces have sent more than 150 ships and over 36,000 troops in 46 batches. 

Although the PLA has achieved stronger capabilities in terms of personnel, military hardware and advanced warfare technology, China has never used this advantage to attack other countries or bully them as done by the US army. 

Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the military and speeding up the modernization of national defense and the armed forces to provide strategic support for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is steadily taking shape. Chinese leaders are seeking to modernize People’s Liberation Army capabilities in all domains of warfare, on land, sea and air defence. 

In 2014, China’s Navy overtook the U.S. Navy to become the largest military fleet in the world. According to the February, 2024, Wall Street Journal article titled: “China’s Shipyards Are Ready for a Protracted War. America’s aren’t,” China’s navy fields 370 battle force ships, more than the U.S navy and the number is projected to rise to 435 by 2030. President Xi Jinping has made it a goal for the PLA to to “modernize” by 2035 and to be a “world-class” military power by mid-century. China’s military capability is for safeguarding peace both at home and abroad to advance and protect human safety and development globally.