Chinese Army Reorganization

parador

Sage

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Friday, August 5th 2011, 10:09pm

I. Establishment of a Professional Army

Historically, China's National Army was founded in 1925 to unite the country versus the warlords. The Chinese Army is based on three different levels.

The first and highest level is called the "National Army ". It is composed of full-time professional soldiers who are trained and equipped to a high standard. The National Army would be roughly comparable in most respects to a European army, though it might not always be able to rise to the same level of equipping and training.

The next level is the "Territorial Army ". These units are raised (conscrpited) in the Chinese provinces, and are mainly used as military-style police troops for maintaining local order. While they have some new equipment, much of their gear is older and passed down from the National Army. In the event of a major war, Territorial Army units may be called out to serve as second or even first-line units to bolster the National Army. While also volunteers still serve in the Territorial Army, the main part of these units is maintained through conscription. Supporting arms, such as artillery, will be older and more scarce than in the National Army.

The final, and lowest, level of the army is the "Reserve Army ". Like the Territorial Army, these units are raised by the provinces and almost always employed locally. They have the poorest level of training and equipment, with training likely varying by the commanding officer and equipment being particularly old. While they will be formed in modern-style regiments, their supporting arms (artillery, AT, communications, etc) will be poor to nonexistent. The Reserve Army units include some penal battalions (criminals sentenced to service for hard-labour tasks).

The National Army represents the Chinese front-line, and regiments are deployed away from their "home province" at the pleasure of the Chinese General Staff. On the other hand, the Territorial and Reserve Armies are generally tied to their home provinces or maximum the prefectures (see below), unless specific orders are given by the emperor and the relevant Chinese governing bodies to detach them for specific service (with certain conditions applying).

II. Manpower and recruitment through Provincial Military Districts

Due to the chinese empire´s large population and area, the administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times. The constitution of the chinese empire provides for three de jure levels of government. Currently, however, there are five practical (de facto) levels of local government:

[List]
* prefecture
* province
* county
* township
* village.
[/List]

The Chinese Empire administers 7 prefectural level regions, 25 provincial level regions, over 2000 county-level regions, over 30.000 township-level regions and even more village-level regions.

Additional there is one Autonomous Region in China, Tibet. An autonomous region is, like the "normal provinces" also a first-level administrative subdivision of the chinese empire. Like chinese provinces, an autonomous region has its own local government, but an autonomous region theoretically has more legislative rights, including: independence of finance, independence of economic planning, independence of arts, science and culture and use of local language. In addition, the head of government of each autonomous region is known as a "chairman", unlike provinces, where they are known as "governors". Thus an Autonomous Region has internal political autonomy and religious freedom, representation in foreign policy, foreign trade and in military affairs but is claimed by the government of the Chinese Empire.

Prefectures are the top-level administrative divisions of the chinese empire that directly governed provinces. These are the largest political divisions of China and were controlled by the Central government.

The 7 prefectures are:

1- Prefecture Lanzhou (Northwest China) consists of the provinces:
Gansu, Quinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang

2- Prefecture Beijing (North China) consists of the provinces:
Zhili, Shanxi, Nei Mongol

3- Prefecture Shenyang (Northeast China) consists of the provinces:
Heilongjiang, Jilin, Fengtian

4- Prefecture Jinan (Central China) consists of the provinces:
Henan, Shandong

5- Prefecture Nanjing (Southeast China) consists of the provinces:
Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Formosa

6- Prefecture Guangzhou (South China) consists of the provinces:
Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi

7- Prefecture Chengdu (Southwest China) consists of the provinces:
Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan

Since the 17th century, provincial boundaries in China have remained largely static. Thus the provinces serve an important cultural role in China, as people tend to identify with their native province.

China has 25 provinces and each province matched a Provincial Military District. This Provincial Military District has several responsibilities. The District Commander is responsible for reporting to the larger regional-level commanders on the state of military affairs within his assigned province. Also he is responsible for commanding all local military operations, that are the responsibility of the Territorial and Reserve Armies in his district. Third, the District Commander is responsible for raising the required regiments for the National, Territorial, and Reserve Armies. Finally, the District Commander is responsible for building and maintaining Provincial Arsenals for weapons.
Each Provincial Military District is responsible for raising one regiment for every one million citizens in the province. For every five regiments, one regiment is assigned to the National Army, two regiments are assigned to the Territorial Army, and two regiments are assigned to the Reserve Army. Each regiment raised in this fashion carries the Province's name as part of their unit designation.

For example, let us take the Province of Guangxi. With a population of 17,948,899 persons, the Guangxi Provincial Military District is responsible for raising eighteen regiments for the army. According to this method, four regiments are sent to the National Army, seven are assigned to the Territorial Army, and seven to the Reserve Army. The unit designation is for example "1st National Infantry Regiment (Guangxi)", or "2nd Territorial Infantry Regiment (Guangxi)".

For the Territorial and Reserve Armies, the Provincial Military Districts are expected to raise their own support troops as well, in order to form them into full-sized infantry divisions. As mentioned above, the Province Guangxi can raise seven Territorial and seven Reserve regiments, they will be formed into two Territorial Divisions and two Reserve Divisions. An example for unit designation is "17th Territoral Infantry Division (Guangxi)".

The raised territorial army of each province is always stationed within their province or maximum the associated prefecture.

In every province with more than ten million civilians, the Provincial Military District is additional responsible for recruiting one regiment for every ten million civilians (rounded). These regiments, drawn from more populous areas, are the base for development of specialized troops (e.g. armoured troops, airborne etc.).

III. Regimentation

The Regiment is the building block of the chinese army. These locally-raised units, particularly at the National Army's level, maintain a soldier's sense of camaraderie, as he's fighting alongside countrymen from his own general home region. This maintains the soldier's sense of being connected to his home, and allows for fostering of better relations between the soldiers themselves. In all three levels of the Chinese Army, a soldier is encouraged to equate his "group identity" with his regiment.
With the twenty-five provinces and the populations shown in the table, China can raise 497 regiments in the fashion outlined above. 111 regiments in the National Army (fault in the table above !!!), 199 regiments in the Territorial Army, and 187 regiments in the Reserve Army. Those provinces with over twenty million persons additionally recruit another 38 regiments into the National Army, bringing it to a grand total of 149 regiments in the National Army.
Historically, German military advisors helped set up an order of battle for the Chinese Army's divisions. Each division consists of four infantry regiments (formed into two brigades), plus supporting arms. Unlike the Territorial and Reserve Army divisions, National Army divisions are composed of regiments from around China, thus they do not carry a geographical designation (though their constituent regiments do). For example "8th National Infantry Division".
Thus, the Chinese Army breaks down into roughly 28 National, 50 Territorial, and 47 Reserve Infantry Divisions, with ten additional Specialist divisions for the Nationalist Army.
Due to China's mountainous regions, at least five divisions (from the specialist divisions) are established as mountain troops, five divisions established as light infantry. The light infantry units have higher proportions of automatic weapons (machine guns, SMGs, etc) but a lower proportion of supporting arms (artillery). China has three armoured infantry divisions, one airborne light infantry division (specialist division), also one marine light infantry division (specialist division), four cavalry divisions and three tank divisions (specialist devision).

Order of Battle

1st National Light Infantry Division
2nd National Armoured Infantry Division
3rd National Infantry Division
4th National Mountain Infantry Division
5th National Mountain Infantry Division
6th National Infantry Division
7th National Cavalry Division
8th National Infantry Division
9th National Infantry Division
10th National Airborne Light Infantry Division
11th National Infantry Division
12th National Infantry Division
13th National Infantry Division
14th National Light Infantry Division
15th National Infantry Division
16th National Mountain Infantry Division
17th National Infantry Division
18th National Cavalry Division
19th National Tank Division
20th National Mountain Infantry Division
21st National Infantry Division
22nd National Infantry Division
23rd National Cavalry Division
24th National Infantry Division
25th National Light Infantry Division
26th National Infantry Division
27th National Light Infantry Division
28th National Mountain Infantry Division
29th National Armoured Infantry Division
30th National Infantry Division
31st National Infantry Division
32nd National Tank Division
33rd National Infantry Division
34th National Light Infantry Division
35th National Marine Light Infantry Division
36th National Tank Division
37th National Armoured Infantry Division
38th National Cavalry Division

Thanks to Brock for his phantastic help in this matter.

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Brockpaine

The Shadow

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Friday, August 5th 2011, 10:16pm

RE: Chinese Army Reorganization

Quoted

Originally posted by parador
Thanks to Brock for his phantastic help in this matter.

Your welcome.

I hope I'm not alone in my belief that this should give China a realistic army that can balance both its great numerical power while maintaining some technical experience...

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Brockpaine

The Shadow

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Monday, August 8th 2011, 11:16pm

Surprised nobody's commented.

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BruceDuncan

Ex chaos ordo

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Tuesday, August 9th 2011, 2:05am

This looks to be a very reasonable and balanced approach to quantifying the manpower available to the Chinese Army, and organizing it into a manageable structure. It represents very good work.

It will be interesting to see further development of the subject and specific divisional tables of establishment, assigned equipment etc.

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parador

Sage

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Tuesday, August 9th 2011, 10:36am

I was surprised too. Yes, Bruce, Brock did a great job and was a phantastic help.

By the way ... additional help is welcomed

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AdmKuznetsov

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Tuesday, August 9th 2011, 12:38pm

It illustrates China's great defensive advantage

An invader must mass his forces to deal with the National Army, yet as he penetrates into China's depth must disperse to hold flanks and populated areas in his rear, making his spearhead vulnerable to defeat at the hands of the National Army.

Like Russia, China can only be defeated outside or on the periphery of the country. Clausewitz' strategy of the "retreat into the interior" is a certain, if costly, method of victory.

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BruceDuncan

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Tuesday, August 9th 2011, 3:23pm

China, like Russia, is secure within its borders so long as the nation remains loyal.

Chinese history has shown too often that the dynasty may loose the loyalty of the people - and when the dynasty cannot depend upon the people's loyalty, the dynasty can be defeated, as the forces it can effectively rely upon are much smaller. These are the lessons of 1860, 1895 and 1905.

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Vukovlad

Me too !!!

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Thursday, August 11th 2011, 8:55pm

I wonder how you say Himmelfahrtsheer in chinese

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Brockpaine

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Thursday, August 11th 2011, 9:06pm

Quoted

Originally posted by Vukovlad
I wonder how you say Himmelfahrtsheer in chinese

Asen song jun.

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Hood

Ugly Aircraft, Inc

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 2:11pm

Defence is one thing but an Army needs an offensive punch too.

Training and qaulity of the troops is another thing, as is leadership. With illiterate conscript troops from the farms and lower echelons of society it may prove to be a fairly blunt instrument. The Soviet Army in WW2 proved pretty sturdy but its unimagintive tactics proved costly, if effective in the long run. The Human Wave is scary but easy to beat if it alwas comes from the same qaurter. China has plenty of manpower but using it as cannon fodder will still make economic problems. Loyalty is a problem, but then led with a stick (like having NKVD troops behind you willing on onward) that can be overcome.

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Brockpaine

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 3:12pm

Quoted

Originally posted by Hood
Defence is one thing but an Army needs an offensive punch too.

I think this army has that in spades: there's three tank divisions, three armoured infantry divisions, an entire airborne division, and a Marine light infantry division. If they have the gear on tap, that is a pretty impressive list right there.

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BruceDuncan

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 3:17pm

It may be unwise to underestimate the fighting ability of the Chinese Army; and what seems as 'lack of punch' may be short-sightedness on the part of the enemy.

Sun Tzu writes, "For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

China has followed this maxim with considerable success - they have regained Manchuria, they have secured suzerainty over Tibet, and they have obtained British withdrawal from Weiheiwei. It is not to be under-rated.

Leadership is certainly an issue, particularly in such a mass force. Developing appropriate tactical doctrine may take time. But offensive 'punch' does not lie only in armoured spearheads. Even the cited "Human Wave" attack can succeed if the enemy is irresolute or lacking ammunition, rending his superior firepower useless. The UN forces in the Korean War learned this to their cost.

All in all, Admiral Kuznetsov's analysis is correct - China can only be defeated on its periphery - and such a victory may prove hollow.

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Hood

Ugly Aircraft, Inc

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 3:46pm

I don't neccessarily agree with that, the Japanese in the 1930s had long campaigns but they acquired a lot of territory, especially along the coasts and were never really in danger of loosing their gains before 1941.

China's weakness at the moment is lack of allies, at some point the resources of any nation or Empire will crack.
China can be defeated from the periphery, destroy its Navy and its sea trade and impose a blockade, a nation that cannot import slowly starves of vital raw materials. A nation that cannot export cannot make money. I.e. Japan in 1945 was already crumbling due to the US submarine operations off its coasts, yes China has greater reserves but it can't produce everything it needs nor has it every raw material under the sun in its own shores.
Command of the sea allows you to make invasions or raids where you choose along the coast, thus tying down Chinese forces to guard its massive coastline, a thousand arrows might not be a decisive blow but it annoys and distracts.
Then strategic bombers can destroy its cities thus destroying vital infrastructure and demoralising the people thus forcing them to force their leaders to capitulation. Yes there are many inland bomber's can't reach but the bigger population centres are on the coast.
Strategically you destroy the nation, not just the armed forces. That is the terrible result of Total War.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "Hood" (Aug 12th 2011, 3:46pm)

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Rooijen10

Mr. Valentines Day

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 4:05pm

Thanks for sharing the Commonwealth plans for China with us Hood.

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BruceDuncan

Ex chaos ordo

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 4:14pm

Quoted

Originally posted by Hood

I don't neccessarily agree with that, the Japanese in the 1930s had long campaigns but they acquired a lot of territory, especially along the coasts and were never really in danger of loosing their gains before 1941.

In large measure, the Japanese controlled a lot of Chinese territory - that which they could place under their guns. But it availed them little and tied up far too much manpower and equipment that might have been better deployed elsewhere.

Quoted

China's weakness at the moment is lack of allies, at some point the resources of any nation or Empire will crack.

As far as I know, Chinese relations with Japan and India are quite friendly - and while neither nation has intervened in the current conflict, the fact that they might (should any other third power attempt to enter the conflict) must be taken into strategic account. You are correct - China has no Western allies - but that does not mean that she is devoid of friends.

Quoted

China can be defeated from the periphery, destroy its Navy and its sea trade and impose a blockade, a nation that cannot import slowly starves of vital raw materials. A nation that cannot export cannot make money.

I am uncertain whether this is realistic for Wesworld China; it certainly applies to China of the modern real world. Is China dependent on imports? I don't know - oil perhaps; food - uncertain; other industrial metals - I doubt it. Would a blockade hurt? Perhaps. Would any power seeking to blockade China's ports be able to seal off the entirety of the Chinese coast? Hardly - it is far too large. China is not an island empire like Japan - which was deficient in oil, metals and food for its home population, so the comparison is flawed.

Quoted

Command of the sea allows you to make invasions or raids where you choose along the coast, thus tying down Chinese forces to guard its massive coastline, a thousand arrows might not be a decisive blow but it annoys and distracts.

This point is well founded. If sufficient annoyance can be created, if sufficient suffering can be inflicted on the civilian population, the confidence in the dynasty might be shaken and the "Mandate of Heaven" seen to fall from its grasp. Yet if the Hundred Years War proves anything a nation may have enough resilience to shrug off chevauchee after chevauchee until a Jeanne d'Arc arrives.

Quoted

Then strategic bombers can destroy its cities thus destroying vital infrastructure and demoralising the people thus forcing them to force their leaders to capitulation. Yes there are many inland bomber's can't reach but the bigger population centres are on the coast.

This posits a very expensive strategy - to create such a bombing force in the first place, then to gain forward bases from which it can attack enemy territory, and then maintain it while it seeks to do its work. For jingoism's sake will a nation suffer that expense? It is a valid question. Would China do something to provoke Total War? I don't know.

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Hood

Ugly Aircraft, Inc

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 4:23pm

An interesting debate.

I'm just throwing alternative thoughts, there are ways and means to win but I'm looking at a total war scenario. Such wars are very rare in WW, most are regional little spats lasting around a year, sometimes less. In that kind of small war China's might is a threat.

Anyhow in the eyes of the British only 41 years ago a couple of gunboats and a handful of soldiers defeated the Chinese and won it the concessions of Hong Kong in the Opium Wars. Big defeats don't need big armies...

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Brockpaine

The Shadow

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 4:27pm

Quoted

Originally posted by Hood
Big defeats don't need big armies...

To use the old saw: "Sometimes the enemy doesn't cooperate."

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BruceDuncan

Ex chaos ordo

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 4:46pm

Quoted

Originally posted by Hood
An interesting debate.

...
Anyhow in the eyes of the British only 41 years ago a couple of gunboats and a handful of soldiers defeated the Chinese and won it the concessions of Hong Kong in the Opium Wars. Big defeats don't need big armies...

Let's see. The First Opium War was fought in the 1840s; the second in the 1860s. The Boxer rebellion was fought around 1900. And you are correct - those victories were won by very small western forces against a backward, poorly equipped, indifferently led and thoroughly demoralized enemy.

Somehow it does not strike me that those factors prevail at this point. Certainly the national Chinese forces are far better equipped than their counterparts in 1900; their leadership is an unknown, but I suspect that their morale is higher. It would be unwise to attempt the feat with a few gunboats and marines at this point.

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AdmKuznetsov

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Friday, August 12th 2011, 5:34pm

I knew there was a reason...

that I'm building big hydroelectric power projects on Siberian rivers, drilling the Volga-Ural oil basin, mining Norilsk and the Kuznetsk basin, and industrializing the Urals and Western Siberia.

Quoted

Then strategic bombers can destroy its cities thus destroying vital infrastructure and demoralising the people thus forcing them to force their leaders to capitulation.

Quoted

Somehow it does not strike me that those factors prevail at this point.

Russia's analysis of China assumes they do not. War with China would be a grave undertaking of high cost, and benefits gained, if any, would be temporary.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "AdmKuznetsov" (Aug 12th 2011, 5:40pm)