PLA troupes to be cut from ranks of troops
The People's Liberation Army is going to have to live without its famed song and dance troupes.
The entertainers are following in the footsteps of the PLA's recently disbanded men's soccer and swimming teams as the nation moves towards a leaner and meaner fighting force.
The latest round of cuts to the world's largest army will see a further 200,000 troops trimmed from the ranks, bringing the total force down to 2.3 million by 2005.
The long-anticipated reduction was made official by Central Military Commission chairman Jiang Zemin during a speech marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the PLA's National Defence Science and Technology University, Xinhua reported yesterday.
'The state of war is being transformed from mechanised warfare to information warfare, with the information capabilities of the military increasingly playing a decisive role,' Mr Jiang was quoted as saying.
'Reducing the scale of our military is beneficial to the concentration of our limited strategic resources and will quicken the pace of constructing our military's information technology.'
Reports in the official media said the reductions would come mainly from the officer ranks and from air and naval units, as well as non-combat positions such as the sports and entertainment units. The cuts come on top of a reduction of 500,000 troops that has been ongoing since 1997. Analysts said the cuts were aimed at streamlining the military's command and control structure.
The Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper recently reported that 85 per cent of the 200,000 positions being dropped would be officers, including at least 200 generals and admirals.
Earlier troop cuts mainly involved the rank and file.
It has also been reported that nine naval and five air units will be dissolved, although no details have been made public.
Andrew Nien-Dzu Yang, an analyst at Taiwan's Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, said the cuts were intended to revamp the PLA's command structure, which was too bureaucratic to direct modern battles in which speed was the critical factor for victory.
'The cuts are targeted so that the PLA's command and control system will become more effective and efficient,' Mr Yang said.
He noted that orders from the Central Military Commission currently had to go through layers of regional commands before reaching divisional units.
Mr Yang expected the PLA would implement the cuts carefully to avoid creating social instability by increasing unemployment.
