China aims at modern fighting force with drastic overhaul of People’s Liberation Army

President Xi Jinping meets navy personnel in Sanya. PLA reform will boost the navy’s role relative to the army’s. Photo: Xinhua

 

President may use boost from Beijing parade to unveil revamp which would cut personnel and put army, navy and air force on equal footings

China is close to unveiling a drastic plan to transform the world’s largest army into a nimble, modern force on par with the best of the West.

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“Many people in the PLA expect to see some major announcements after the parade,” Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said. “Parades like this boost morale and patriotism. It will provide Xi a good opportunity to announce his ambitious plans on how to transform the PLA into a real modern army capable of winning wars.”

The veil is lifting on the world’s largest military

 

So secretive is China’s army that it began admitting foreign journalists to its monthly–and highly uninformative–briefings only last year.

But in the past few months extraordinary revelations have appeared in the Chinese media about corruption in the highest ranks of the People’s Liberation Army: a deputy chief of logistics built a mansion for himself modelled on the Forbidden City (among his treasures was a statue of Mao Zedong, in gold); the country’s most senior uniformed officer had a basement stacked high with cash; and in January it emerged that no fewer than 15 generals, including a former deputy chief of the nuclear arsenal, were being investigated for graft.

Never before in China’s history have so many high-ranking officers faced such charges at once.

Brotherhood’s thirst for power splits Egypt into two: Egyptians and Islamists

CAIRO – A coalition of Egyptian Islamist parties on Monday called for an “open-ended” demonstration on Friday in support of President Mohamed Morsi two days before planned rallies against him, raising fears of violence.

The alliance is calling for a “million-man march” followed by an open-ended protest outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Egypt’s Nasr City under the slogan “legitimacy is a red line”, Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement on its website.

The call comes a day after the defence minister warned that the army will intervene if violence breaks out.