The Eastern Theater Command () is one of the five theater commands of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the China, People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five Military branch, service branches: the People's ...

(PLA), founded 1 February 2016. It replaced the

Nanjing Military Region The Nanjing Military Region () was one of the former seven military command regions for the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Its jurisdiction covers all military and armed police located in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Sh ...

. The command is headquartered in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

. Its jurisdiction includes

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze Riv ...

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

provinces and the East China Sea to include the Strait of Taiwan. The Eastern Theater Command is primarily composed three subordinate single-service component commands: the Eastern Theater Army of the PLAGF, the

East Sea Fleet The Eastern Theater Command Navy (), or East Sea Fleet (ESF; ), is one of the three fleets of the People's Liberation Army Navy, operating in the East China Sea under the Eastern Theater Command. It was the first naval force formed by the Peop ...

of the

PLAN A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. ...

, and the Eastern Theater Command Air Force of the PLAAF which conduct combat operations within the command's

area of responsibility Area of responsibility (AOR) is a pre-defined geographic region assigned to Combatant commanders of the Unified Command Plan (UCP), that are used to define an area with specific geographic boundaries where they have the authority to plan and co ...

. Also under the Eastern Theater Command is the

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city a ...

Joint Logistics Support Center (JSLC) of the CMC's Joint Logistics Support Force which provides logistic and material support to the command and Base 61 of the PLARF which is responsible for missile employment in the Eastern Theater. Its commander is General Lin Xiangyang and its political commissar is General He Ping.

Area of responsibility

Eastern Theater Command's

(AOR) includes

East China East China () is a geographical and a loosely defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China. A concept abolished in 1978, for economical purposes the region was defined from 1949 to 1961 by the Chinese Central Governme ...

, the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated ...

, and the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a ...

. The command's primary missions are maintaining security in the East China Sea and the conduct of major operations against Taiwan, including the

Penghu The Penghu (, Hokkien POJ: ''Phîⁿ-ô͘'' or ''Phêⁿ-ô͘'' ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, located approximately west from the main island of Taiwan, covering an area ...

, Kinmen and Matsu Islands. It is also likely responsible for matters relating to Japan, including the Ryukyu Archipelago, the Tsushima Strait and the disputed

Senkaku Islands The are a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan. They are located northeast of Taiwan, east of China, west of Okinawa Island, and north of the southwestern end of the Ryukyu Islands. They are known in main ...

History

On 1 February 2016, the Eastern Theater Command held its inaugural meeting in the Bayi Building in Beijing. The meeting was held concurrently with all of the other newly created theater commands. General Secretary of the CCP and Chairman of the CMC

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...

was in attendance, awarding military flags and issuing the official instructions. CMC Vice Chairman and CCP Politburo Member

Fan Changlong Fan Changlong (; born May 1947) is a retired general in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the China, People's Republic of China. He was a Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and formerly served as commander of the Jinan Militar ...

read out the orders while CMC Vice Chairman

Xu Qiliang Xu Qiliang (; born March 1950) is an air force general in the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) of the People's Republic of China. He currently serves as a Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of ...

presided. In response to the 2022 visit by

United States Speaker of the House The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U. ...

Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...

to Taiwan, the Eastern Theater Command conducted joint ground, air, and naval exercises including live-fire drills, missile launches over

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

, and Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) incursions.

Organizational structure

The Eastern Theater Command, like other Chinese theater commands, consists of a joint headquarters, a joint logistics support center (JSLC) from the PLA Joint Logistics Support Force, a PLA Ground Force (PLAGF) service component, a PLA Air Force (PLAAF) service component, a PLA Navy (PLAN) service component, and a PLA Rocket Force (PLARF) service component. Within Eastern Theater Command these units these are the Nanjing headquarters, Wuxi Joint Logistics Support Facility, Eastern Theater Command Ground Forces, Eastern Theater Command Air Force, Eastern Fleet, and Base 61.

Headquarters

Located in

, capital of

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its c ...

, the Eastern Theater Command headquarters includes both the General Staff Department, responsible for staff support to command leadership, and the Political Works Department, providing the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

(CCP) oversight and influence within the command. The command's General Staff Department () consists of at least eight sections: combat bureau, intelligence bureau, information assurance agency, military demand bureau, joint training board, mobilization bureau, work department bureau, work direction bureau, and war service bureau. The command's Political Works Department () consists of at least six bureaus: general, organization, cadre, military and civilian, publicity, and group workers liaison bureau. Eastern-Theater-2020

PLA Ground Force

The PLA Ground Force (PLAGF) component of Eastern Theater Command is comprised of three major units: The 71st, 72nd, and 73rd Group Army. Since 2017 reforms, the PLAGF group army represents a more evolved, flexible, and capable operational organization that provides Chinese military decision makers with the ability to task-organize forces to accomplish specific missions. Each group army doctrinally commands twelve

brigades A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. Br ...

: six

combined-arms Combined arms is an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects (for example by using infantry and armour in an urban environment in which each supports the other) ...

brigades (CA-BDEs) and six support brigades including

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes airplane, fixed-wing and helicopter, rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as aerostat, lighter- ...

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during si ...

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

, CBRN, special operations forces (SOF), and others.

71st Group Army

The 71st Group Army () traces its history back to the 12th Crops, a February 1949 consolidation of the 34th, 35th, and 36th Divisions. In December of 1950, the 12th Corps incorporated the 31st Division of the 11th Corps and entered the Korean War, fighting in the Shangganling Campaign against two United Nations divisions.. In May of 1989, the Central Military Commission mobilized at least 14 of the PLA's 24 group armies to enforce martial law against student-led protests in

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananm ...

from five of the seven military regions, a larger force than had been mobilized for China's border wars with Vietnam, India, or the Soviet Union.(Chinese
Wu Renhua, "六四北京戒严部队的数量和番号" 《1989天安门事件二十周年祭》之三
Accessed 2013-06-29(Chinese
Wu Renhua, "六四：一场没有武装对手的战争" 《1989天安门事件二十周年祭》系列之八
Accessed 2013-06-28(Chinese
Wu Renhua, "六四：一场没有武装对手的战争" 《1989天安门事件二十周年祭》系列之八
Accessed 2013-06-28 The Nanjing Military Region, predecessor to the Eastern Theater Command, airlifted the 34th, 36th, and 110th Infantry Divisions, an artillery brigade, and an anti-aircraft battalion from the 12th Corps following Xu Qinxian's refusal to mobilize the 38th Army in Beijing.(Chines
Wu Renhua, "进京的戒严部队和进京路线" 《1989天安门事件二十周年祭》系列之十二
Accessed 2013-06-29 In 2017 the 12th Corps was disbanded and replaced by the 71st Group Army as China replaced their seven military regions with five theater commands. Headquartered in

Xuzhou Xuzhou (徐州), also known as Pengcheng (彭城) in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in the built-up area ma ...

, the composition of the 71st Group Army matches the Chinese doctrinal group army structure commanding six combined-arms brigades and seven support brigades. The 71st Group Army is understood to consist of the below units. Note, the PLAGF uniquely identifies support brigades using the same unit number as the parent group army. * Headquarters * 2nd Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade * 35th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade * 160th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade * 235th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade * 178th Medium Combined-Arms Brigade * 179th Light Combined-Arms Brigade * 71st Army Aviation Brigade * 71st Artillery Brigade * 71st Air Defense Brigade * 71st Special Operations Brigade * 71st Service Support Brigade

72nd Group Army

The

72nd Group Army 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mytho ...

(), headquartered in Huzhou City,

Zhejiang Province Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

, originates from the 1930 activation of the 2nd Red Army in

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...

which took part in Mao's famous

Long March The Long March (, lit. ''Long Expedition'') was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the National Army of the Chinese ...

. The 2nd Red Army was reorganized and redesignated as the 1st Corps in February 1947 taking an active role in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...

include in the battles for Shanzong, Fumei, and Longdong. In April 1953, 1st Corps was deployed to the Korean War but returned to China after only a few months with the conflict's cessation. In 2017, with the transformation of military regions to theater commands, the PLAGF 1st Corps was reorganized and redesignated as the 72nd Ground Army. The 72nd Group Army is understood to consist of the below units. * Headquarters * 10th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade * 5th Amphibious Combined-Arms Brigade * 124th Amphibious Combined-Arms Brigade * 85th Medium Combined-Arms Brigade * 90th Light Combined-Arms Brigade * 72nd Army Aviation Brigade * 72nd Artillery Brigade * 72nd Air Defense Brigade * 72nd Special Operations Brigade * 72nd Service Support Brigade

73rd Group Army

The

73rd Group Army The 73rd Group Army , Unit 73111), formerly the 31st Group Army, is a military formation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Ground Forces (PLAGF). The 73rd Group Army is one of twelve total group armies of the PLAGF, the largest echelon of gr ...

() is headquartered in Bantou, Jimei District, Xiamen City, of

Fujian Province Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...

– directly across the

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean chan ...

from Taiwan. The 73rd Group Army's history begins in 1941 with the Shantung Column of the Shangtung Military Region. Undergoing a number of restructures and redesignations throughout the 1940s, eventually to become the 31st Corps. Unlike the predecessors of the 71st and 72nd Group Armies (12th and 1st Corps) of the Eastern Theater Command, the 73rd Group Army's predecessor (the 31st Corps) was not selected to deploy in the early 1950s Korean War and remained in Fujian Province to defend the Chinese mainland against a potential US-Taiwan invasion. Later in 1958, the 31st Corps took part in the artillery bombardment of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

's Kinmen (Quemoy) and Matsu Islands precipitating the

Second Taiwan Strait Crisis The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, also called the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis, was a conflict that took place between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). In this conflict, the PRC shelled the islands of Kinm ...

. As the 12th Corps and 1st Corps were reorganized and redesignated as the 71st and 72nd Army Groups in China's 2015–2017 military reforms, the 31st Corps became the 73rd Army Group. As one of two group armies in the Eastern Theater Command with amphibious combined-arms brigades, the 73rd Group has been prominently featured by Chinese media conducting amphibious landing drills in Fujian Province demonstrating its capability to take part in the use of force against Taiwan. The 73rd Group Army is understood to consists of the below units. * Headquarters * 86th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade * 14th Amphibious Combined-Arms Brigade * 91st Amphibious Combined-Arms Brigade * 145th Medium Combined-Arms Brigade * 3rd Light Combined-Arms Brigade * 73rd Army Aviation Brigade * 73rd Artillery Brigade * 73nd Air Defense Brigade * 73rd Special Operations Brigade * 73rd Service Support Brigade

PLA Air Force

The Eastern Theater Command Air Force is the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) component of Eastern Theater Command and is led by commander Huang Guoxian () who took office in February 2016 and political commissar Lieutenant General Zhong Weiguo () who took office in June 2019. The PLAAF has largely disestablished divisions and converted their subordinate regiments to brigades. With only the 10th Bomber Division remaining as a division, the Eastern Theater Command Air Force is comprised of the following units. * 8th Fighter Brigade * 9th Fighter Brigade * 25th Fighter Brigade * 40th Fighter Brigade * 41st Fighter Brigade * 78th Fighter Brigade * 83rd Fighter Brigade * 85th Fighter Brigade * 95th Fighter Brigade * 10th Bomber Division ** 28th Bomber Regiment ** 29th Bomber Regiment ** 30th Bomber Regiment * 76th Air Regiment * 77th Air Regiment * 93rd Regiment * Unidentified drone attack brigade

PLA Navy

* Eastern Theater Command Navy (

) **

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

Fleet Headquarters **

Naval Base ** Xiangshan Naval Base **

Zhoushan Zhoushan , formerly romanized as Chusan, is an urbanized archipelago with the administrative status of a prefecture-level city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It consists of an archipelago of islands at the southern mouth of ...

Naval Base **

Naval Base * 1st Coastal Defense Brigade (Shanghai) * 2nd Coastal Defense Brigade (Shanghai) * Coastal Defense Brigade (Fujian) * 13th Coastal Defense Division, (Jinjiang, Quanzhou) * 31st Pontoon Bridge Brigade PLA Naval Air Force * 1st Air Division (Shanghai) * 17th Air Regiment (Changzhou) * 5th Independent Bomber Regiment (Changzhou) * 4th Naval Aviation Brigade (Taizhou) * 11th Air Regiment (Ningbo) * 18th Air Regiment (JH-7)

PLA Rocket Force

The

People's Liberation Army Rocket Force The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF; ), formerly the Second Artillery Corps (), is the strategic and tactical missile force of the People's Republic of China. The PLARF is the 4th branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and c ...

(PLARF) component of Eastern Theater Command is Base 61 in Huangshan, Anhui. Base 61 has been regarded as the PLARF's "premier conventional base opposite Taiwan" where a number of senior PLARF leadership were likely to have been stationed. Base 61 traces its origins back to August 1965 with the establishment of Unit 121 in Guangyang Township, Shitai County which was responsible for the construction of missile silos under the PLA's

Second Artillery Corps The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF; ), formerly the Second Artillery Corps (), is the strategic and tactical missile force of the People's Republic of China. The PLARF is the 4th branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and c ...

(predecessor to the PLARF) and led by Liao Changmei (). PLA Rocket Force 61st Base (Huangshan City, Anhui Province) The unit was converted into the Project 303 headquarters in June 1966 and remained until 25 May 1968 when the Central Military Commission renamed the headquarters to Base 52 of the Second Artillery Corps, the PLARF component of the

(predecessor to the Eastern Theater Command). PLA Rocket Force 61st Base (Huangshan City, Anhui Province) Base 52 comprised the 807th, 811th, 815th, 817th, 818th, 819th, 820th, and 827th Brigades armed with

DF-21 The Dong-Feng 21 (DF-21; NATO reporting name CSS-5 - Dong-Feng () is a two-stage, solid-fuel rocket, single-warhead medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) in the Dong Feng series developed by China Changfeng Mechanics and Electronics Technology A ...

, DF-15C, DF-15A, DF-11A, CJ-10A, and DF-21C ballistic missiles. PLA Rocket Force 61st Base (Huangshan City, Anhui Province) In 2016 the newly established PLARF took command of Base 52 which would be redesignated as Base 61 and its subordinate brigades renamed 611 to 618.