Chinese Militia

Franklin

Captain
Can someone explain what the 3 million man strong PLA militia is for. I understand the tasks of the PLA, PAP, regular police and the CG but the PLA militia is something of a mystery to me. I understand that the militia use to be part of the people's war concept from the cold war days when China didn't have the kind of technology it have today and has to deal with a potential USSR invasion. But what is its modern function ?
 

solarz

Brigadier
From what I understand, the militia are basically people who train once a year, but other wise do normal jobs.

If needed, they can be called upon to maintain order, help with disaster relief, search and rescue, etc.
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
PLA militia is part of the Reserve Service. There are two teers in the reserve structure. The more readying reserve and the lesser readying reserve which is the militia. The more readying reserve actually has their uniforms, you can see that from the national military parade, they are all demobilized soldiers and officers. The militia on the other hand consists of both demobilized soldiers and civilians who have never served in the military.

The wiki page is quite accurate in this subject.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


A photo of the first teer reserve. See the silver strips and stars.
Img323771377.jpg


It seems that militia also has some kind of uniform. The left is the first teer. The right is the militia.
t01f417a27cbb338d19.jpg
 
Last edited:

The Philosopher

New Member
Registered Member
I'm surprised they have a militia considering the fact that the PLA is the largest army in the world with 800,000 reservists and the ability to mobilize the PAP
 

Franklin

Captain
Break down of manpower of the Chinese security forces. This is from what I can gather from Wikipedia so it may not be completely accurate.

PLA (2,300,000) (2,000,000 by 2017)

PLA reserves (510,000)

PAP (1,500,000)

Militia (3,000,000)

Coast Guard (16,300)
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
Oh I read some previous comment that said something like 3 million people were in the militia...didn't seem right
I only quoted the 800,000 from you. I have no idea of what is the number of total reservists (预备役部队reserved troops + 民兵militia). Without the exact number, it is true that the militia is part of the reservists of PLA.
 

Totoro

Major
VIP Professional
Last official white paper mentioned 8 million (eight, not a typo ) strong militia. one can read on globalsecurity website (dont know which sources they used) that back when militia had 10 million, it was two tiered force of some 4 million ex military and 6 million people which didnt serve in the military. It mentions all militiamen are under 40 yrs of age and that they train a few weeks a year.

These figures need to be taken suspiciously as even us national guard trains just several weeks a year. I would think training levels for militia force would have to be less.

I wonder where the 3 million figure came from. It does fit the possible, projected ex military portion of militia now that it downsized to total of 8 million.
 

The Philosopher

New Member
Registered Member
i don't know why they would need such as massive force unless it was meant to deal with Russia but Russia's economy is pretty dependent on Chinese investment....
 
Top