Reforms in Chinese Army (PLA)

Current Chinese military strength: 

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will be cut by 300,000 (3 lakh) personnel from its 2.3 m (23 lakh) strong military force.

Rapid modernizing of PLA (People's Liberation Army). 

News: 

Chinese Army spotted along LoC in Pak-occupied Kashmir (13th March, 2016) - Indian Express

After frequent incursions in Ladakh area, Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops have been spotted at forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC) on the Pakistani side of Kashmir, ringing alarm bells in the security grid.

China revamps military command structure (3rd Feb, 2016): The Hindu

Sovereignty threats

Due to strong nationalism among Chinese people, Mr. Xi and his party will become entirely unpopular if they fail to take Taiwan by force if Taiwan pursues independence,” says blogging website Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements.

<<Credits: VISION>> 

India Defense Spending: 40 Billion Dollars

China Defense Spending:  130 Billion Dollars

Reasons behind the reforms:

• China is involved in multiple territorial disputes with other Asian countries. This means that it is at least theoretically possible that China’s military might one day face two enemies simultaneously, possibly in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. But China’s Navy is not yet mature enough to fight two wars  simultaneously.

• There is still the lingering problem of corruption. Before these reforms were announced, the PLA’s Discipline Commission was relatively weak, unable to bring in its own members for justice. Now the Commission directly reports to Xi, which should, in theory, greatly enhance the Party’s ability to fight corruption nationwide.

Implications for India:

• With merging of military commands on the eastern and western part of India, the Chinese forces will now have better command and control all along the LAC. It indicates that China will continue to apply sustained pressure and maintain an 'offensive' posture towards India.

• India needs to carefully watch the ongoing military reforms in China. They are certain to lead to increase in capabilities of the PLA, especially the Navy which has now been assigned with an expanded role – i.e. carrying out the task of ‘open seas protection’.

• It should recognize that tensions in the contentious South China Sea and East China Sea are certain to rise, which may have negative implications of its Act East policy.

• China’s move to have a base in Djibouti threatens India’s role as security provider in Indian Ocean Region. Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), which could have counter-balanced China's naval forays into the IOR, has largely failed to live up to its initial promise of a robust theatre command due to turf  wars among the three Services.

• India has really not gone in for major military reforms till now to inject the much-required synergy among the Army, Navy and IAF, reduce their poor teeth-to-tail combat ratio and better utilise scarce resources to systematically build military capabilities in a cost-effective holistic manner.