China’s Fujian province steps up defence mobilisation reforms to improve war readiness
- The southeastern province merges defence mobilisation office with department tasked with integrating civilian resources
- The move echoes central government’s policy to boost coordination between armed forces and civilians
Provincial governments opened local defence mobilisation offices after Beijing called for improvements to the system during the Communist Party’s national congress in October 2022. Fujian did so in December that year.
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Hunan are among the other municipalities and provinces that have set up their own offices.
One major change under the reform was to have provincial governments take over coordination of defence mobilisation from local military districts.
The provincial governments, which can more easily coordinate between different administrative agencies, are expected to be able to carry out mobilisation more efficiently.
With the cooperation of provincial governments, local defence mobilisation offices have ramped up efforts such as holding educational events and joint training with emergency departments.