China will cut the number of its troops by 300,000, President Xi Jinping announced ahead of the country's first military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory of counter-Japanese aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War on Thursday.[Special coverage]
The move will mainly target troops equipped with outdated armaments, administrative staff and non-combatant personnel, to optimize the structure of Chinese forces. The cuts will be completed by the end of 2017.
Yang Yujun, spokesman of the Defense Ministry, noted the military cut announcement will underline China's bona fides and wish to uphold peace, achieve common development and share prosperity with other nations, and also reflects China's positive and responsible attitude in pushing forward military controls and cuts on a world level.
Chinese authorities have been stressing that Thursday's commemoration was aimed at bearing history in mind, honoring all those who laid down their lives, cherishing peace and opening up the future.
War plagued China and the world in the first half of the 20th century. In October 1951, shortly after the founding of the New China, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) boasted a record 6.11 million troops.
In 1985, the country decided to cut 1 million troops in an effort to focus on accelerating economic development and strengthening the quality of the troops.
In 1987, the total troops of the PLA were reduced to 3.235 million from 4.238 million. By 1990, the number of troops lowered to 3.199 million, with a total cut of 1.039 million.
In 1997, China decided to further shrink its troops by 500,000 within three years, reducing the total to 2.5 million.
Between 2003 and 2005, a third-time cut of 200,000 downsized the troops to 2.3 million, with the army taking up the least proportion in the country's history.
The cut unveiled Thursday will be the country's fourth since the reform and opening-up in the 1980s, downsizing the current number to 2 million.
China will optimize the size and structure of the army, adjust and improve the proportion between various troops, and reduce non-combatant institutions and personnel, according to a decision reached by the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013.
According to Yang, the cut will help concentrate resources, accelerate the progress in information technology and boost military quality.
However, China will maintain a moderate size of budget for national defense based on the fact that the overall level of Chinese troops' weapons and equipment is still comparatively low and various aspects need to be improved, including information technology progress and the treatment of military personnel and retired servicemen.
An official budget report revealed in March that China's military expenditure in 2014 accounted for less than 1.5 percent of GDP, well below the world's average of 2.6 percent.
As a major developing country, China still faces diverse, complicated security threats. In addition to combat drills, Chinese troops took up plenty of non-combatant military missions.
Since the devastating earthquake in 2008, China's armed forces have deployed more than 2.5 million military staff in non-military missions.
About 30,000 Chinese soldiers have so far served in UN's peacekeeping missions, the most among all five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Considering the need of self-defense and regional security as well as the peacekeeping responsibility as a major country, China has to keep the size of its armed forces at an appropriate level.
Wang Xinjun, research fellow with the Academy of Military Science of PLA, told Xinhua that Chinese armed forces have played an increasing part in safeguarding peace across the world.
"More and more people agree that we are peace-loving people," Wang said.
The decision to cut the troops demonstrates China's firm commitment to peaceful development, a defensive military strategy, world peace and regional stability, Yang said.
