PLA reorganisation ... from 7 military regions to 4 strategic regions

PanAsian said:

If you go by potential flashpoints or contingencies the multi-color map on the left makes more sense. In that map the Southern zone will face all of SouthEast Asia rather than splitting that "front" between two zones based on land versus sea borders. Anyways I am still not convinced we have seen the real map yet.

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Given all the different maps we've seen in the past 2months, I suspect there has been a lot of internal debate and negotiation, but with this map, it looks pretty settled.

Yunnan in Southern Command makes sense because Vietnam is the primary land AND naval contingency, whilst Yunnan adds very little to Western Command.

The Philippines is a walkover and the US is simply not interested enough in the SCS.

Hmm ... another one, but this time it is again the "right" map !

I’m surprised that all ten theater commanders/commissars are from the army. I thought at least some would came from navy/air force, given the previous emphasis on combined arms operation.


Also, since the theater commands now supposedly take over the operational command of all troops, how do the three fleet HQ of the PLAN fit in? Do they became pure administration units?


Finally, IMO Yunnan in western command actually make more sense. The primary concern on this direction is not Vietnam, but possible future complications in Myanmar and the left flank of Sino-Indian confrontation. Since it is quite obvious that western command is primarily concerned with India and Indian ocean, I think Yunnan fits here better than the southern command.

Just found this on CCTV on Youtube, I'm going to accept this as official.
Yunnan is with the West battlezone and Shandong is with the Central battlezone.

I’m pretty sure that Shandong belongs to the Northern Theatre. The Northern Theatre Army Command has recently been commissioned in the city of Jinan on the location of the original Jinan military region HQ, as reported by a local newspaper.


Chinese media (CCTV included) have published a lot of contradicting and confusing information since last week. I’m wait until official Xinhua bulletin (not xinhuanet.com, which is basically worthless) or 7pm CCTV evening news to call it definitive.

After some research I realised that not all ten commanders are Army Generals. Commissar of the Western Command Zhu Fuxi was obviously once the head of PLAAF political department so he is actually from the Air Force.


In addition, in the last few seconds of the video of the official ceremony, Xi took group photos with the commanding officers of the five theaters separately. In the second row stand the commanding staffs, half of them are naval/air force officers judging by uniform. The central three (presumably C-in-C, commissar and chief of staff) are mostly green uniformed army generals but one theater (looks like southern?) has an admiral among the top three. Since we know he is neither the commander nor the commissar, he’s probably the chief of staff of that theater.


I can’t post video snapshots from my tablet. Maybe someone else could help?

May I recommend this file !!!





Deino

Operational Units:

What operational units will be disbanded? A review of internet sources since January 1, 2016 indicates that all 18 group armies remain operational. Will there be any change to the organization and subordination of the PLAN’s three fleets? Currently, all three fleets are reported operational. [10] There has been no official reporting on any changes in PLAAF units (MOD, February 2).

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https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/pl...-4-strategic-regions.t7913/page-4#post-388055

What is the point going from 7 to 5 regions ? Wasn't China suppose to go for a single command ?

Deino said:

May I recommend this file !!!

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Deino

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Unfortunately despite the fact that they include a map they also acknowledge that there is no official map yet and multiple versions have been put forward by unofficial sources:

...
Also, to date, there has been no official announcement as to what provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities the theater commands will include, or where the headquarters are located. At least four different maps have been published in the unofficial Chinese and Western media showing different sets of boundaries for the new theaters (Tieba, January 15; nddtv.com, January 29; cjdby.net; Sina Blogs, January 27; Phoenix, February 1).
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