Chinese Militia and its state of readiness

solarz said:

It's probably more accurate to describe the militia as a socio-political organization, designed to continue a time-honored tradition, impart self and group discipline, and to improve one's "political stance".

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Hmmmm. I thought the only political stance that matters in China was becoming a member of CCP, which will practically opens all the doors for your political ambition. Anything else would be considered trivial, at least back in the days...

vesicles said:

Hmmmm. I thought the only political stance that matters in China was becoming a member of CCP, which will practically opens all the doors for your political ambition. Anything else would be considered trivial, at least back in the days...

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Are you kidding? There are 75 million CCP members. Being in the CCP isn't that big of a deal. My wife joined in her 2nd year in university. Think of it as nice extra-curricular activity you can put on your resume. Being in the militia, I think, would be similiar.

pla101prc said:

dont know about militias in any other country but as a reservists in the CF i can say that after 4-5 years of service a reservist is as good as a reg force soldier. i have a buddy who is already over in afghanistan and back when we did our basic training together i beat him in virtually everything.

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Is reservist in China the same thing as militia? Like I have mentioned before Army Reserve and militia are different thing in China. In Singapore I can confidently said that our reservists are actually much more experience than the servicemen still in the army because at one point of time, they receive the same amount of training and plus a couple of years down the road will more exposure to 'outside' world as civilian, they get to pick up more tricks that the soldiers in the camp didn't.

I think Rhino and some of the guys are mixing up the militia and the Reserve Force, the reserver force receives a training and have relatively more modern weapon. The Militia however, almost does not receive any formal training. There are a vast amount of militia in China, every little village of China have its own militia composed of strong young men who has a good background. Most militias are armed with type 56 and older models of submachine guns and such with almost no other weapon other than small Arms. Most militias also are not professional at all, they farm and make a living most of the times and are only called if they are needed. It is VERY easy to become a militia. REserve force is different, they receive training and have many large weapons including anti air missiles I think, not very sure though

sidewinder01 said:

I think Rhino and some of the guys are mixing up the militia and the Reserve Force, the reserver force receives a training and have relatively more modern weapon. The Militia however, almost does not receive any formal training. There are a vast amount of militia in China, every little village of China have its own militia composed of strong young men who has a good background. Most militias are armed with type 56 and older models of submachine guns and such with almost no other weapon other than small Arms. Most militias also are not professional at all, they farm and make a living most of the times and are only called if they are needed. It is VERY easy to become a militia. REserve force is different, they receive training and have many large weapons including anti air missiles I think, not very sure though

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PLA reserves are just like the reserves of any regular army in terms of function.

montyp165 said:

PLA reserves are just like the reserves of any regular army in terms of function.

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I said Reserve force in China is different its militia.... I did not say that it has a different function than the rest of the world....

sidewinder01 said:

I think Rhino and some of the guys are mixing up the militia and the Reserve Force, the reserver force receives a training and have relatively more modern weapon. The Militia however, almost does not receive any formal training. There are a vast amount of militia in China, every little village of China have its own militia composed of strong young men who has a good background. Most militias are armed with type 56 and older models of submachine guns and such with almost no other weapon other than small Arms. Most militias also are not professional at all, they farm and make a living most of the times and are only called if they are needed. It is VERY easy to become a militia. REserve force is different, they receive training and have many large weapons including anti air missiles I think, not very sure though

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I never say anything about China reserve force being the same as militia. anyway, like what I have pointed out from the beginning, militia in China are remants of the old People War Strategy. And as China is a country surrounded countries which are equal or better militarily, thus she needed the militia to ensure that the country internally is stable while her regulars fought in the frontline.

In the past and even now, China is still focusing on war happening in her land and so she would need huge number of manpower in this type of war.

The question is... how well prepared is this militia. In time of war, how long will it take to mobilise them?

rhino123 said:

I never say anything about China reserve force being the same as militia. anyway, like what I have pointed out from the beginning, militia in China are remants of the old People War Strategy. And as China is a country surrounded countries which are equal or better militarily, thus she needed the militia to ensure that the country internally is stable while her regulars fought in the frontline.

In the past and even now, China is still focusing on war happening in her land and so she would need huge number of manpower in this type of war.

The question is... how well prepared is this militia. In time of war, how long will it take to mobilise them?

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I honestly don't think China still focuses on an all-out war on its land. As indicated by military analysts in China in the past 20 years, China is focusing on a limited war with high tech and information..... The internal stability is the job of PAP and reserves, not militia.

Militia is more of a "souvenir" from WWII era and part of a remembering the past thing. I still remember back in the days when I was in China. When we mentioned "militia", the only thing I thought about was those guys assisting the special martial teams belonging to the communist 8th army in WWII. Most of them were armed with nothing but spears and knives. There are some famous stories of child militia as messengers carrying mails with feathers attached (one feather means normal, two urgent and 3 means very urgent...) And my impression is that, even back then, the actual importance of militia was heavily exaggerated to encourage people to participate and to gain support of the locals.

Nowadays, militia bears absolutely no importance in China's defense. And they are NOT prepared AT ALL for any type of fighting. It's ALL for show. You can tell that from the 60th National Day parade. Only female militia was shown and they wore the little red doll dress. It just shows how much the PLA actually cares about their "fighting ability".

I totally agreed with Vesicles. Militia's roles were effectively taken over by PAP when PLA was cutting down its man power. PAP are far more effective with their training and equipment.

Militia's will be reactivated only if China is facing a full scale invasion when all able men are called up, but that event is very unlikely to happen in near future.

vesicles said:

Nowadays, militia bears absolutely no importance in China's defense. And they are NOT prepared AT ALL for any type of fighting. It's ALL for show. You can tell that from the 60th National Day parade. Only female militia was shown and they wore the little red doll dress. It just shows how much the PLA actually cares about their "fighting ability".

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While your argument has merit, I think you overlooked one fact. The PLA has never focused exclusively on the "fighting ability" of its soldiers. In fact, perhaps the greatest strength of the PLA is to insert itself into civilian culture, instead of keeping itself apart, like other militaries of the world do.

The PLA cultural departments are given as much importance as the combat divisions. Just look at Song Zuying, who's a ranked something like a General?

The point is, don't dismiss the importance of the militia just because they're not geared towards combat.

Oh, and don't diss the little red doll dresses!