ABSTRACT
The reorganization and streamlining of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are the touchstones of Deng Xiaoping’s military modernization program. A streamlined and more efficiently organized PLA would presumably need fewer of the products of defense industry factories and would use the defense infrastructure less, as well. The new military regions have been given the right to command the different service arms; in the past, these service arms were placed under the armed forces command. In terms of weaponry, the argument was made that it would be easier and more efficient to supply the expensive high-technology equipment the PLA needs to upgrade its capabilities to a streamlined and better educated military than to the sprawling and poorly educated mass army of the past. The People's Republic of China’s efforts to reorganize and streamline its forces have resulted in stripping nearly a million persons from the military’s rolls.
