Early history In 1925, the CCP's Central Military Department, was renamed the Central Military Commission. It was first led by
Zhang Guotao who was replaced by
Zhou Enlai in 1926 as head of the CMC. They were then known as the
Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, or simply the Red Army. In 1934 and 1935, the Red Army survived several campaigns led against it by
Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang and engaged in the
Long March. During the
Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, the CCP's military forces were nominally integrated into the National Revolutionary Army of the
Republic of China, forming two main units, the
Eighth Route Army and the
New Fourth Army. During this time, these two military groups primarily employed
guerrilla tactics, generally avoiding large-scale battles with the Japanese, and at the same time consolidating by recruiting KMT troops and paramilitary forces behind Japanese lines into their forces. After the
Japanese surrender in 1945, the CCP continued to use the National Revolutionary Army unit structures, until the decision was made in February 1947 to merge the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. The reorganization was completed by late 1948. The PLA eventually won the Chinese Civil War, establishing the
People's Republic of China in 1949.
Establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1958, 5 years after the Korean War ended with an armistice (a ceasefire) in 1953. The banner in the background of the picture bears a slogan (in Chinese) which declares "The Friendship And Unity of the North Korean And Chinese Peoples Are Always Steadfast And Strong!" surveying the soldiers during the 10th-anniversary military parade in 1959 After the establishment of the PRC, the PLA underwent a drastic reorganization, with the establishment of the
Air Force leadership structure in November 1949, followed by the
Navy leadership structure the following April. In this early period, the People's Liberation Army overwhelmingly consisted of peasants. Its treatment of soldiers and officers was
egalitarian As a result of its egalitarian organization, the early PLA overturned strict traditional hierarchies that governed the lives of peasants. In the PRC's early years, the PLA was a dominant
foreign policy institution in the country. Since 1949, China has used nine different military strategies, which the PLA calls "strategic guidelines". The most important came in 1956, 1980, and 1993. In November 1950, some units of the PLA under the name of the
People's Volunteer Army intervened in the
Korean War as United Nations forces under General
Douglas MacArthur approached the
Yalu River. Under the weight of this offensive, Chinese forces drove MacArthur's forces out of North Korea and captured
Seoul, but were subsequently pushed back south of Pyongyang north of the
38th Parallel. In 1962, the PLA Ground Force also fought India in the
Sino-Indian War. In
a series of border clashes in 1967 with Indian troops, the PLA suffered heavy numerical and tactical losses. Before the
Cultural Revolution, military region commanders tended to remain in their posts for long periods. The longest-serving military region commanders were
Xu Shiyou in the
Nanjing Military Region (1954–74),
Yang Dezhi in the
Jinan Military Region (1958–74),
Chen Xilian in the
Shenyang Military Region (1959–73), and
Han Xianchu in the Fuzhou Military Region (1960–74). In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, the PLA abandoned the use of the military ranks that it had adopted in 1955. The establishment of a professional military force equipped with modern weapons and doctrine was the last of the
Four Modernizations announced by Zhou Enlai and supported by
Deng Xiaoping. In keeping with Deng's mandate to reform, the PLA has demobilized millions of men and women since 1978 and has introduced modern methods in such areas as
recruitment and manpower,
strategy, and
education and training. In 1979, the PLA fought
Vietnam over a border skirmish in the
Sino-Vietnamese War where both sides claimed victory. However, western analysts generally agree that Vietnam handily outperformed the PLA. China and Afghanistan had neutral relations with each other during the King's rule. When the pro-Soviet Afghan Communists seized power in Afghanistan in 1978, relations between China and the Afghan communists quickly turned hostile. China responded to the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by supporting the
Afghan mujahidin and ramping up their military presence near Afghanistan in Xinjiang. The PLA Ground Force trained and supported the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War, moving its training camps for the mujahideen from Pakistan into China itself. Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of anti-aircraft missiles, rocket launchers, and machine guns were given to the Mujahideen by the Chinese. Chinese military advisors and army troops were also present with the Mujahideen during training. In the late 1980s, the central government had increasing expenditures and limited revenue. The central government encouraged its agencies and encouraged local governments to expand their services and pursue revenues. The lack of oversight, ineffective self-regulation, and
Jiang Zemin's and
Hu Jintao's lack of close personal ties to the PLA led to systemic corruption that persisted through the late-2010s. Jiang's attempt to divest the PLA of its commercial interests was only partially successful, as many were still run by close associates of PLA officers. Corruption lowered readiness and proficiency, was a barrier to modernization and professionalization, and eroded party control. The 2010s
anti-corruption campaigns and military reforms under
Xi Jinping from the early-2010s were in part executed to address these problems. Following the
PLA's suppression of the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, ideological correctness was temporarily revived as the dominant theme in Chinese military affairs. Reform and modernization have today resumed their position as the PLA's primary objectives, although the armed forces' political loyalty to the CCP has remained a leading concern. Beginning in the 1980s, the PLA tried to transform itself from a land-based power centered on a vast ground force to a smaller, more mobile, high-tech one capable of mounting operations beyond its borders. In 1985, the PLA changed from being constantly prepared to "hit early, strike hard, and to fight a nuclear war" to developing the military in an era of peace. The 1991
Gulf War provided the Chinese leadership with a stark realization that the PLA was an oversized, almost-obsolete force. The USA's sending of two aircraft carrier groups to the vicinity of Taiwan during the
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis prompted Jiang to order a ten-year PLA modernization program. during the
Victory Day parade on 9 May 2025 The possibility of a militarized Japan has also been a continuous concern to the Chinese leadership since the late 1990s. In addition, China's military leadership has been reacting to and learning from the successes and failures of the
United States Armed Forces during the
Kosovo War, the
2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the
2003 invasion of Iraq, and the
Iraqi insurgency. A goal of the RMA is to transform the PLA into a force capable of winning what it calls "local wars under high-tech conditions" rather than a massive, numbers-dominated ground-type war. In 2002, the PLA began holding military exercises with militaries from other countries. From 2018 to 2023, more than half of these exercises have focused on military training other than war, generally antipiracy, or antiterrorism exercises involving combatting non-state actors.
Sukhoi Su-27 and
Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines. It has also started to produce several new classes of destroyers and frigates including the
Type 052D class guided-missile destroyer. In addition, the PLAAF has designed its very own
Chengdu J-10 fighter aircraft and a new stealth fighter, the
Chengdu J-20. The PLA launched the new
Jin class nuclear submarines on 3 December 2004 capable of launching nuclear warheads that could strike targets across the Pacific Ocean and have three aircraft carriers, with the latest, the Fujian, launched in 2022. From 2014 to 2015, the PLA deployed 524 medical staff on a rotational basis to combat the
Ebola virus outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau. In 2016, the CMC replaced the four traditional military departments with a number of new bodies. China replaced its system of seven military regions with newly established Theater Commands:
Northern,
Southern,
Western,
Eastern, and
Central. Before the big anniversary it mounted its biggest parade yet and the first outside of Beijing, held in the
Zhurihe Training Base in the
Northern Theater Command (within the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region). In December 2023,
Reuters reported a military leadership purge after high-ranking generals were ousted from the
National People's Congress. Prior to 2017, over sixty generals were investigated and sacked.
Overseas deployments and UN peacekeeping operations In addition to its
Support Base in Djibouti, the PLA operates a base in Tajikistan and a
listening station in Cuba. The
Espacio Lejano Station in Argentina is operated by a PLA unit. The PLAN has also undertaken rotational deployments of its warships at the
Ream Naval Base in Cambodia. The People's Republic of China has sent the PLA to various hotspots as part of China's role as a prominent member of the United Nations. Such units usually include engineers and logistical units and members of the paramilitary
People's Armed Police and have been deployed as part of peacekeeping operations in
Lebanon, the
Republic of the Congo,
Sudan,
Ivory Coast,
Haiti, and more recently,
Mali and
South Sudan.
Engagements • 1927–1950:
Chinese Civil War • 1937–1945:
Second Sino-Japanese War • 1949:
Yangtze incident against British warships on the Yangtze River • 1949:
Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China • 1950:
Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China • 1950–1953:
Korean War under the banner of the Chinese
People's Volunteer Army • 1954–1955:
First Taiwan Strait Crisis • 1955–1970:
Vietnam War • 1958:
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis at
Quemoy and
Matsu • 1962:
Sino-Indian War • 1967:
Border skirmishes with India • 1969:
Sino-Soviet border conflict • 1974:
Battle of the Paracel Islands with
South Vietnam • 1979:
Sino-Vietnamese War • 1979–1990:
Sino-Vietnamese conflicts • 1988:
Johnson South Reef Skirmish with Vietnam • 1989:
Enforcement of martial law in Beijing during the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre • 1990:
Barin uprising • 1995–1996:
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis • 2007–present:
UNIFIL peacekeeping operations in
Lebanon • 2014: Search and rescue efforts for
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 • 2014:
UN peacekeeping operations in
Mali • 2015:
UNMISS peacekeeping operations in
South Sudan • 2020–2021:
China–India skirmishes As of at least early 2024, China has not fought a war since 1979 and has only fought relatively minor conflicts since. == Organization ==