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China's Jiang: Army to Trim 200,000 Men

Posted on: Monday, 1 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

China will cut an additional 200,000 soldiers as part of efforts to modernize its armed forces, state media reported Monday, quoting military commission chief and retired president Jiang Zemin.

The cuts were reported by the official Xinhua news agency and come on top of an already-announced 500,000-man reduction over the five years ending in 2005.

Altogether, the military will shrink from about 2.5 million people to about 1.8 million.

The cuts will coincide with the introduction of more high-tech battle systems, Xinhua said. It cited a speech by Jiang, who still heads the government and Communist Party commissions that control the military.

"With the introduction of new technology - especially information technology - international competition in the area of military affairs is getting hotter," Jiang was quoted as saying at 50th-anniversary celebrations for the National Defense Science and Technology University on Monday.

China's military is still oriented toward ground combat with huge numbers of troops. Its planes, tanks and ships are antiquated and its soldiers are poorly trained.

By reducing military manpower, China can "maximize the use of its limited strategic resources and speed up information technology development in the military," Jiang was quoted as saying.

For years, China has been upgrading specific units to higher technical levels and shifting focus away from sheer numbers of soldiers. The announcement of further cuts suggests that strategy is being adopted and entrenched across the military.

Chinese military planners consider the United States to be their biggest threat and have spent years trying to refocus their forces to keep up with American advances in modern warfare.

Beijing has spent billions of dollars in recent years upgrading its arsenal with Russian-made fighter jets, submarines and other weapons. China's reported military budget rose by nearly 10 percent this year to $22.4 billion, though analysts say the total could be five times that.

The Chinese military has also shifted strategy to dovetail with its highest priority - uniting the island of Taiwan with the communist-ruled mainland.

The shift in strategy moves away from the notion of sending waves of troops across the Taiwan strait. Instead, China is believed to be focusing on the prospect of an air and sea blockage and the use of high-tech missiles and even computer viruses to cripple its rival's economy.

Jiang's announcement also indicated his continuing influence in military affairs. Though he relinquished his posts of president and party chief in the past year, Jiang has given no indication when he might hand his military commission posts to his successor, Hu Jintao.

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