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China Ranks, Uniforms, and Insignia
The 1984 Military Service Law also stipulated that military
ranks would be reintroduced to the PLA. Military leaders justified
the restoration of ranks as improving organization, discipline, and
morale and facilitating coordinated operations among different arms
and services, thus serving to modernize and regularize the
military. The PLA's experience in the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese border
war, in which the absence of ranks led to confusion on the
battlefield, was another factor leading to the restoration of
ranks. However, the rank system was not immediately implemented
because "preparatory work" still needed to be done. Implementation
was delayed by disputes in higher echelons in the PLA over who
would receive what rank and by the long process of reducing the
size of the military. In mid-1987 the PLA still had not restored
its system of ranks. The ranks for officers reportedly were to be
based on the 1955 rank system, which included one supreme marshal
and ten marshals at the very top. Ground force and Air Force ranks
were to be senior general, general, lieutenant general, major
general, senior colonel, colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, senior
captain, captain, first lieutenant, and second lieutenant. Naval
officer ranks were to be senior admiral, admiral, vice admiral,
rear admiral, senior captain, captain, commander, lieutenant
commander, senior lieutenant, junior lieutenant, and ensign.
Although the restoration of ranks was delayed, in 1985 PLA
personnel were issued new uniforms and service insignia. Officers
at and above regimental level wore woolen and blended woolen
uniforms; officers at battalion level and below and soldiers wore
cotton uniforms. All personnel wore visored military caps, new
collar insignia, and shoulder boards. The cap emblem was round with
a design of five stars and the ideographs bayi (August 1st,
the anniversary of the 1927 Nanchang Uprising) surrounded by wheat
ears and cog wheels. Uniform colors were olive green for the ground
forces; dark blue in winter, and a white jacket and dark blue
trousers in summer for the Navy; and an olive green jacket and dark
blue trousers for the Air Force. Officer jackets had epaulets and
golden buttons with the five-star and August 1st design. Collar
badges were red for the ground forces, black for the Navy, and blue
for the Air Force. Personnel of the intraservice Strategic Missile
Force wore distinctive patches but otherwise retained the uniform
of their parent service. The new uniforms replaced the baggy, green
fatigue uniforms that had made it hard to distinguish between
officers and soldiers. The change in uniforms served the needs of
military modernization by raising morale, strengthening discipline,
and facilitating command and organization.
Data as of July 1987
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