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China Paramilitary Forces
Militia
The role of the militia and the degree of party and PLA control
over it have varied over the years. During the 1940s the militia
served primarily as a PLA support force. After 1949 the party
consolidated control over the country and gradually used the
militia to maintain order and help the PLA with defense of the
borders and coast. In the mid-1950s Minister of National Defense
Peng Dehuai attempted to build a reserve system incorporating the
militia. Peng's efforts were thwarted when the party expanded the
militia, assigning it duties as a production force and internal
security force during the Great Leap Forward. Lin Biao reduced the
size of the militia and reemphasized military training in the early
1960s. The militia was fragmented during the early years of the
Cultural Revolution, but in the 1970s it was rebuilt and redirected
to support the PLA. The Gang of Four attempted to build up the
urban militia as an alternative to the PLA, but the urban militia
failed to support the Gang of Four in 1976, when Hua Guofeng and
moderate military leaders deposed them. The militia's logistical
support of the PLA was essential during the Sino-Vietnamese border
war of 1979. In the 1980s Chinese leaders undertook to improve the
militia's military capabilities by reducing its size and its
economic tasks.
In 1987 the militia was controlled by the PLA at the military
district level and by people's armed forces departments, which
devolved to civilian control at the county and city levels as part
of the reduction in force. The militia was a smaller force than
previously, consisting of 4.3 million basic or primary--armed--
militia, and the 6-million-strong general or ordinary militia. The
basic militia was comprised of men and women aged eighteen to
twenty-eight who had served or were expected to serve in the PLA
and who received thirty to forty days of military training per
year. The basic militia included naval militia, which operated
armed fishing trawlers and coastal defense units, as well as
specialized detachments, such as air defense, artillery,
communications, antichemical, reconnaissance, and engineering
units, which served the PLA. The ordinary militia included men aged
eighteen to thirty-five who met the criteria for military service;
they received some basic military training but generally were
unarmed. The ordinary militia had some air defense duties and
included the urban militia. Efforts were made to streamline militia
organization and upgrade militia weaponry. By 1986 militia training
bases had been established in over half the counties and cities in
the nation.
The militia's principal tasks in the 1980s were to assist in
production, to undergo military training, and to defend China's
frontiers in peacetime. In wartime, the militia would supply
reserves for mobilization, provide logistical support to the PLA,
and conduct guerrilla operations behind enemy lines.
Data as of July 1987
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