System Overload? The 2015 PLA Force Reduction, Military-Locality Relations, and the Potential for Social Instability

On September 3, 2015, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and Central Military Commission (CMC) Chairman Xi Jinping announced a reduction in the overall size of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from 2.3 million personnel to 2 million, a reduction of about 11 percent of the military’s end strength. The announcement was followed by a Work Conference on Central Military Commission Reform [zhongyang junwei gaige gongzuo huiyi, 中央军委改革工作会议] in which Xi initiated his military reform plan. A flurry of organizational and structural reforms to the PLA soon followed, and continues apace today.

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