chinatopix.com
Brooke Knightley
November 28, 2015
China’s President Xi Jinping has announced an upcoming military overhaul which will see an overseas outpost being established by 2020.
On Thursday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported that President Xi Jinping outlined the planned reforms for the Chinese military. President Xi has once again vowed to reduce the number of troops by 300,000. He also described the modernization efforts to be implemented, according to Reuters.
“Under the leadership of the (Communist) Party, our military has gone from small to big, from weak to strong, from victory to victory,” Reuters quotes Xi’s reported statement. “On this road, reform and innovation steps have never stopped.”
The reduction of the troop number aims to simplify and professionalize the Chinese military. This will probably involve reducing the nation’s seven military regions. Xi explained that the regions would be restructured and they will establish a joint operational command structure.
China is planning to put up its first overseas military outpost in the East African nation of Djibouti. In the past, Beijing had resolved not to follow the U.S. example of establishing military facilities in other countries, The New York Times reports.
No other details on the new military base were provided, but the Foreign Ministry said China would use it to replenish the supplies of navy ships joining the United Nations antipiracy missions.
Beijing has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the port of Djibouti. It has also invested billions of dollars in the construction of a railroad connecting the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Djibouti. Military experts say this is a strategy for China to gain better access to the Arabian Peninsula.
The announcement comes amidst an existing territorial spat with neighboring countries in the East and South China Seas. The troop reduction and the modernization plan are seen as controversial and some of the demobilized soldiers have protested the lack of options for new sources of income.
Xi mentioned that a new military discipline body will be established as part of an effort to stop graft and corruption. However, the Chinese president also did not elaborate on the plan.
