Chinese Streamline Their Army; Making Significant Cuts

As if taking a page out of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's playbook, the Chinese military has decreased troop levels by 200,000 in order to create a more lean yet effective army, the official newspaper of the People's Liberation Army announced on Monday.

The Liberation Army Daily -- a state-controlled news service -- claims the two-year program to slim China's military was finished on schedule at the end of 2005, and troop numbers were down to 2.3 million. China had 2.5 million serving military in 2003 when the cuts started. In 1987, it had about 4.2 million.

The reforms included reducing layers in the command hierarchy, cutting non-battle units such as schools and farms, and rearranging officer duties.

"The personnel system reforms have brought heartening changes to our military development. They've compressed troop numbers and optimized the personnel structure," the paper said.

"Our military is marching toward the goal of an appropriately sized, structurally balanced, lean, command-responsive fighting force."

After the cutbacks, the proportion of military serving in the infantry had fallen to a "historic low," while the share in the navy, air force and Second Artillery Corps -- which maintains China's nuclear missiles -- had risen, the paper said.

The paper also said that "high-tech" forces had increased. China has accelerated developing or buying several advanced weapons, including surveillance satellites, missiles, and "blue water" naval vessels and submarines.

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