Legislators said promises made by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at yesterday’s military parade in Beijing on downsizing the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by 300,000 are a smokescreen to placate China’s neighbors.
Xi said the decision was due to the Chinese loving peace and that China would not “become a hegemony or seek to expand its borders” in the future.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that if the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) alleged “downsizing” means simply transferring armed forces to the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force and public security units, it is only moving numbers on paper.
It would constitute armed forces trained for war taking on the role of police in times of peace, but reverting to soldiers in times of war, Huang said.
The claims bear further observation and if China’s national defense spending increases year-on-year even after the downsizing, it would be a “faux” downsizing, Huang said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said that a decrease of 300,000 in an army of 2 million was a drop in the ocean, adding that such claims only sought to placate other countries through faked downsizing.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) also said that unless China clearly abandons plans to invade Taiwan by force, as well as foregoing all intent in expanding in the Pacific-Asian region, its military downsizing held no significance.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) echoed Tsai’s comments and said that downsizing would not affect China militarily.
The PLA Army, which comprises about 1.24 million out of the total 2 million, is extremely bloated, Lin said.
Lin added that trimming some of the fat from the PLA Army would instead help the CCP focus its resources on the navy, air force and Second Artillery Corps, the primary unit handling China’s nuclear arsenal and conventional missiles.
The downsizing would help improve the overall performance of the PLA, Lin said, predicting that most of the downsizing would take place in the PLA Army, as well as by trimming human resources in the various administrative departments of the four military headquarters.
However, KMT Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) said that with chances of armed conflict across the Taiwan Strait at an all-time low, the downsizing of the PLA would help mitigate Taiwanese inhibitions toward China.
Ma said that China’s missiles aimed toward Taiwan were still a security concern and if Beijing is sincere in its attempts to extend an olive branch toward Taiwan, it should avoid making any threats, including diplomatically and on the issue of arms sales.
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