The roadmap of upward advancement for PLA leaders

The roadmap of upward advancement for military officers of any country is a kind of labyrinth. In the People's Liberation Army (PLA) there are about half a million officers at, or above, regimental level. ¹ Only three of them could acquire the status of party and state leaders (two deputy chairs of the Central Military Commission (CMC) plus Minister of National Defense); seven of them, the status of PLA leaders (CMC members); and about four dozens of them, the status of leaders of PLA headquarters (four services, dadanwei, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203374504/59b68c90-5841-4937-b401-89116ef61e86/content/fig3-1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>) and military regions (MR) with a rank of general. Even for an officer aiming only at a corps commandership, he has to climb 11 steps to get there, and the higher the steps the harder the climbing. ² Although the PLA has about 2,000 posts at or above the deputy corps level (major generals or above); the ladder is crowded, the pattern of promotion unpredictable, and rivalry enormously cruel. This is because promotion of officers above colonel is highly competitive based on a selective mechanism (xuanshengzhi, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203374504/59b68c90-5841-4937-b401-89116ef61e86/content/fig3-2_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>). Fewer than 10 percent of senior colonels can be lucky enough to become a major general. Today PLA transformation has entered a fast track, as it gradually becomes a high-tech force focusing on network-centric warfare. This has placed huge pressure on the CMC to groom suitable personnel to man the commanding posts at the various levels — senior officers who are capable of conducting joint warfare and operating sophisticated computerized armaments. Personnel reform has constituted a precondition for the overall transformation to succeed. ³