China Renames Forces?

Good subject mate! I noticed this when I posted photos of the Chinese Air Force aerobatic team. Check out the markings on this aircraft..



Here's a link to the article..

China Defense Blog: Where is the "People" in the "People's Liquidation Army "?

It was barely a week ago I sat philosophizing over a beer how long it would be until China streamlined the name of their forces. "China Navy" has a much better ring to it than "People's Liberation Army Navy". If this turns out to be true, it would be a great step towards a formally more modern (and cool) force.

PS: If the PLA (or Chinese Army) decides to keep this quiet, I can understand, as I guess there is a lot of politics and tradition connected to the "People's Liberation Army"-name, and a lot of people would be angry.

While we are on the subject, I always have a problem with the English translation of "army" part in "PLA". The Chinese character is "Jun", which means military, troop, or forces. It does not specifically mean "army", which nowadays suggests ground forces. I don't know who came up with the translation, but I think we should called it Chinese Military or something like that to avoid confusion.

BTW, I was also a little surprised about the "China Air Force" label on the J-10 when I first saw the photo in the PLAAF photo thread... And I too feel "China army", "China AF" and "China Navy" sound much better.

CCP certainly does not want people to believe that they are abandoning the "liberation" past. In this day and age when they want stability over anything else, giving people the idea that even the CCP wants changes may not be a good idea.

Ive also read that they had English writing on their badging...... is that really true?

Why the English writing on the J10. It should be Pin Yin if anything.

The troops are becoming very westernised looking, Ive seen some wearing "shades" in their publicity photos, and very soon you wont be able separate any of the soilders from SE Asia.

I'm not really sure about this, haven't heard anything in the news about it. Also, may I point out that the way they spelt China Air Force, 中国空军, it is possible that it is an abbreviation of PLAAF, which is 中国人民解放军空军. So while in English it's completely different, in Chinese it may be just an abbreviated form of PLAAF

Originally Posted by bladerunner

Ive also read that they had English writing on their badging...... is that really true?

Why the English writing on the J10. It should be Pin Yin if anything.

The troops are becoming very westernised looking, Ive seen some wearing "shades" in their publicity photos, and very soon you wont be able separate any of the soilders from SE Asia.

I think it is more to do with global publicity. The english writing on that J-10 actually belongs to the acrobatic team and I am imagining that the acrobatic team will go worldwide to perform.

Also for the badge... same reason as above (except for the performing part).

Heh I certainly hope they are renaming it - there will be havoc with all the pla/chinese military related articles from now on i think - "IS IT PLAAF OR CHINA AIR FORCE??!! ARGH!" - I just hope the PLA/Chinese military will officially come out and say "yeah we've re named ourselves", to avoid confusion.

(And won't Taiwan be pretty irked if say the PLAN was named China Navy instea of like PRCN (like how they did with ROCN)? Interesting times...)

My own point of view actually... PLA - People Liberation Army... If we take the name's surface meaning... it means something like they are an Army that liberate the people (maybe from tyrants, from provety, from who knows what.) and under their chinese name it was 人民解放军 basically sharing the same explanation from the english name...

But as of now... who are they trying to liberate? Since China is already a sovereign nation and... the people are already liberated from whatever... so shouldn't the name be change already? Maybe to People Republic of China Army, Navy and AirForce (PRCA, PRCN, PRCAF)?

At the theoretical level, the names China Army or PRC Army imply that the armed force belongs to the state, and the state, is the instrument of the ruling elite. While the PLA, was originally conceived as a "people's army", an army that belongs to the people, and serves the interest of the people.

Therefore, a name change would imply that the ownership of the military has been taken away from the people, and transfered to the ruling elite, it will undermine the legitimacy of the communist party rule.

Originally Posted by King_Comm

At the theoretical level, the names China Army or PRC Army imply that the armed force belongs to the state, and the state, is the instrument of the ruling elite. While the PLA, was originally conceived as a "people's army", an army that belongs to the people, and serves the interest of the people.

Therefore, a name change would imply that the ownership of the military has been taken away from the people, and transfered to the ruling elite, it will undermine the legitimacy of the communist party rule.

Not necessarily, it could also imply that its owned by the Chinese nation (i.e. the Chinese people). In any case, the realities wouldn't change much, it's more of a cosmetic change. However, I'm sure a ton of pundits would repeat what you just said.

slightly. I was always under the impression that the armed forces owed their allegence to the CCP, in contrast to the democratic system where the allegience is to the state?.

Originally Posted by bladerunner

slightly. I was always under the impression that the armed forces owed their allegence to the CCP, in contrast to the democratic system where the allegience is to the state?.

Considering that the CCP and the State is the same thing...

Originally Posted by solarz

Considering that the CCP and the State is the same thing...

No they are not. Saying so is like saying the Democratic Party in the US is currently the state. Even the National People's Congress doesn't recognize CCP as a government entity.

Originally Posted by bladerunner

slightly. I was always under the impression that the armed forces owed their allegence to the CCP, in contrast to the democratic system where the allegience is to the state?.

PLA owes allegiance to CCP has nothing to do with how one government characterizes itself. When PLA was created, there was simply no state to pledge allegiance to, thus PLA pledges allegiance to its founding organization instead -- CCP.