The history 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 ...

began in 1927 with the start of 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 ...

and spans to the present, having developed from a

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasa ...

guerrilla force into the largest

armed force A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

in the world.

Historical background

Throughout the centuries, two tendencies have influenced the role of the military in national life, one in

peacetime Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and the other in times of upheaval. In times of peace and stability, military forces were firmly subordinated to

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

control. The military was strong enough to overcome domestic rebellions and foreign invasion, yet it did not threaten civilian control of the political system. In times of disorder, however, new military leaders and organizations arose to challenge the old system, resulting in the

militarization Militarization, or militarisation, is the process by which a society organizes itself for military conflict and violence. It is related to militarism, which is an ideology that reflects the level of militarization of a state. The process of milit ...

political life Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. When one of these leaders became strong enough, he established a new political order ruling all China. After consolidating power, the new ruler or his successors subordinated the military to civilian control once again. Since the 1960s, China had considered the Soviet Union the principal threat to its security; lesser threats were posed by long standing

border dispute A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of land between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the possession of natural resources s ...

s with

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

and India. China's territorial claims and economic interests made the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Ph ...

an area of strategic importance to China. Although China sought peaceful reunification of

Taiwan 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 no ...

with the

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

, it did not rule out the use of force against the island if serious internal disturbances, a declaration of independence, or a threatening alliance occurred.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China

The divisions of the "Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" (中國工農紅軍) were named according to historical circumstances, sometimes in a nonconsecutive way. Early Communist units often formed by defection from existing Kuomintang forces, keeping their original designations. Moreover, during the

, central control of separate Communist-controlled enclaves within China was limited, adding to the confusion of nomenclature of Communist forces. By the time of the 1934

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 ...

, numerous small units had been organized into three unified groups, the First Front Red Army (紅一方面軍/红一方面军/Hóng Yī Fāngmiàn Jūn), the Second Front Red Army (紅二方面軍/红二方面军/Hóng Èr Fāngmiàn Jūn) and the Fourth Front Red Army (紅四方面軍/红四方面军/Hóng Sì Fāngmiàn Jūn), also translated as "First Front Red Army", "Second Front Red Army" and "Fourth Front Red Army". Mao's military thought grew out of the Red Army's experiences in the late 1930s and early 1940s and formed the basis for the "

people's war People's war (Chinese: 人民战争), also called protracted people's war, is a Maoist military strategy. First developed by the Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the basic concept behind people's war is to main ...

" concept, which became the

doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief syste ...

of the Red Army and the PLA. In developing his thought, Mao drew on the works of the Chinese military strategist

Sun Zi The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrare ...

(4th century BC) and Soviet and other theorists, as well as on the lore of peasant uprisings, such as the stories found in the classical novel ''

Shuihu Zhuan ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is ...

'' (''Water Margin'') and the stories of the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It last ...

. Synthesizing these influences with lessons learned from the Red Army's successes and failures, Mao created a comprehensive politico-military doctrine for waging

revolutionary warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...

. People's war incorporated political, economic, and

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries bet ...

measures with protracted military struggle against a superior foe. As a military doctrine, people's war emphasized the

mobilization Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories an ...

of the populace to support regular and guerrilla forces; the primacy of men over weapons, with superior motivation compensating for inferior

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

; and the three progressive phases of protracted warfare—strategic defensive, strategic

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the infer ...

, and strategic offensive (see

Mobile Warfare Mobile warfare () is a military strategy of the People’s Republic of China employing conventional forces on fluid fronts with units maneuvering to exploit opportunities for tactical surprise, or where a local superiority of forces can be real ...

). During the first stage, enemy forces were "lured in deep" into one's own territory to overextend, disperse, and isolate them. The Red Army established base areas from which to harass the enemy, but these bases and other territory could be abandoned to preserve Red Army forces. In addition, policies ordered by Mao for all soldiers to follow, the

Eight Points of Attention The Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention () is a military doctrine that was issued in 1928 by Mao Zedong and his associates for the Chinese Red Army, who were then fighting against the Kuomintang. The contents vary slightly i ...

, instructed the army to avoid harm to or disrespect for the peasants, regardless of the need for food and supplies. This policy won support for the Communists among the rural peasants. On January 15, 1949, the Communist Party Central Military Commission decided to reorganise the regional armies of the PLA into four field armies.

People's Republic of China

Border disputes in the 1970s

In January 1974, the PLA saw action in the

following a long-simmering dispute with the

Republic of Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of t ...

(South Vietnam) over the

Paracel Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoang Sa Archipelago ( vi, Quần đảo Hoàng Sa, lit=Yellow Sand Archipelago), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. The archipelago includes about 130 small coral ...

. The PLA successfully seized control of three disputed islands in a

naval battle Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large la ...

and a subsequent

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

assault. A

Sino-Vietnamese War The Sino-Vietnamese War (also known by other names) was a border war fought between China and Vietnam in early 1979. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's actions against the Khmer Rouge in 1978, which ended the rule of the C ...

revealed specific shortcomings in military capabilities and thus provided an additional impetus to the military modernization effort. The border war, the PLA's largest military operation since the Korean War, was essentially a limited, offensive, ground-force campaign. The war had mixed results militarily and politically. Although the numerically superior Chinese forces penetrated about fifty kilometers into Vietnam, the PLA was not on good terms with its supply lines and was unable to achieve a decisive victory in the war. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory.

Military modernization in the 1980s

In 1981, the PLA conducted its largest military exercise in North China since the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 1985,

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. Aft ...

announced that the PLA would demobilize 1 million troops. On the other hand, border battles and skirmishes continued throughout the 1980s.

Chronology

The Ten-Year Civil War (1927–1937)

:* 1927:

Nanchang Uprising The Nanchang Uprising () was the first major Nationalist Party of China–Chinese Communist Party engagement of the Chinese Civil War, begun by the Chinese Communists to counter the Shanghai massacre of 1927 by the Kuomintang. The Kuomi ...

Autumn Harvest Uprising The Autumn Harvest Uprising was an insurrection that took place in Hunan and Kiangsi (Jiangxi) provinces of China, on September 7, 1927, led by Mao Tse-tung, who established a short-lived Hunan Soviet. After initial success, the uprising was ...

Guangzhou Uprising Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

:* Kuomintang campaigns against the

Jiangxi Soviet 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 into h ...

: ::* November 1930 to December 1931:

First Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet The first encirclement campaign () against Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government intended to annihilate the Chinese Red Army, and destroy the Soviet. The communists later responded with the fi ...

::* April to May 1931:

Second Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet The second encirclement campaign () against Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of encircling and destroying the Jiangxi Soviet after the previous campaign had failed. The Red Ar ...

::* July 1931:

Third Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet The third encirclement campaign () against Jiangxi Soviet was the third campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of destroying the Red Army in Jiangxi. It was launched less than a month after the previous campaign f ...

::* December 1932 to March 1933: Fourth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet ::* September 1933 to October 1934:

Fifth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet The fifth encirclement campaign against Kiangsi (Jiangxi) Soviet was a series of battles fought during the Chinese Civil War from 25 September 1933, to October 1934 between Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang) and the Chinese ...

:* 1934–1936: The

, a strategic retreat to avoid destruction by the Nationalist armies of Chiang Kai-shek :* 1935: Battle at the

Luding Bridge Luding Bridge () is a bridge over the Dadu River in Luding County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China, located about 80 kilometers west of the city of Ya'an. The bridge dates from the Qing Dynasty and is considered a histo ...

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)

* 1937 to 1945:

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

:* September 25, 1937: The

Battle of Pingxingguan The Battle of Pingxingguan (), commonly called the Great Victory of Pingxingguan in Mainland China, was an engagement fought on 25 September 1937, at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, between the Eighth Route Army of the Chinese ...

:* January 1940: The

New Fourth Army Incident The New Fourth Army Incident (), also known as the South Anhui Incident (), occurred in China in January 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Chinese Civil War was in theory suspended, uniting the Communists and Nationalist ...

:* August–December 1940: The

Hundred Regiments Offensive The Hundred Regiments Offensive also known as the Hundred Regiments Campaign () (20 August – 5 December 1940) was a major campaign of the Chinese Communist Party's National Revolutionary Army divisions. It was commanded by Peng Dehuai against ...

Chinese Civil War (1945–1950)

* 1945 to 1950:

against the Kuomintang: :*September 10, 1945 to October 12, 1945 – Shangdang Campaign :*October 22, 1945 to November 2, 1945 – Handan Campaign :*December 17, 1946 to April 1, 1947 – Linjiang Campaign :*May 13, 1947 to July 1, 1947 – Summer Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China :*September 14, 1947 to November 5, 1947 – Autumn Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China :*October 10, 1947 - Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army reorganised into the People's Liberation Army :*December 15, 1947 to March 15, 1948 –

Winter Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China The Winter Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China () was a series of battles initiated by the Communist forces against the Kuomintang (Nationalists) during the Chinese Civil War after World War II. Prelude After the Summer Offensive of 1947 in Nor ...

:*May 23, 1948 to October 19, 1948 –

Siege of Changchun The siege of Changchun was a military blockade undertaken by the People's Liberation Army against Changchun between May and October 1948, the largest city in Manchuria at the time, and one of the headquarters of the Republic of China Army in Nor ...

:*September 12, 1948 to November 12, 1949 – Liaoshen Campaign :*October 7, 1948 to November 15, 1948 –

Battle of Jinzhou Battle of Chinchow () was a battle between the People's Liberation Army and the National Revolutionary Army during the Liaoshen Campaign in the Chinese Civil War. The battle was a turning point in the campaign, which eventually led to capture o ...

:*November 6, 1948 to January 10, 1949 – Huaihai Campaign :*November 29, 1948 to January 31, 1949 – Pingjin Campaign :*October 25, 1949 to October 27, 1949 –

Battle of Kuningtou The Battle of Kuningtou or Battle of Guningtou (), also known as the Battle of Kinmen (), was a battle fought over Kinmen in the Taiwan Strait during the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The failure of the Communists to take the island left it in the ...

:*November 3, 1949 to November 5, 1949 – Battle of Denbu Island :*March 3, 1950 to March 3, 1950 –

Battle of Nan'ao Island The Battle of Nan'ao island (Nan'ao Dao, 南澳岛) was a battle fought between the nationalists (Kuomintang) and the communists. Nan'ao Island (Nan'ao Dao, 南澳岛) of Swatow (now known as Shantou) remained in the nationalist hands after Gu ...

:*May 12, 1950 to June 2, 1950 – Shanghai Campaign :*May 25, 1950 to August 7, 1950 – Wanshan Archipelago Campaign :*August 9, 1950 to August 9, 1950 – Battle of Nanpéng Island

People's Republic of China (since 1949)

Taiwan Strait (aftermath of the civil war)

* 1952 to 1996: Taiwan Strait conflicts with 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 ...

(Taiwan): :*April 11, 1952 to April 15, 1952 –

Battle of Nanri Island The Battle of Nanri Island () was a conflict between the Republic of China Army (ROCA) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), over Nanri Island in today's Nanri Town, Xiuyu District, Putian, Fujian, People's Republic of China off the coast of ...

:*September 20, 1952 to October 20, 1952: Battle of Nanpēng Archipelago :* August 1954 to May 1955: The

First Taiwan Strait Crisis The First Taiwan Strait Crisis (also the Formosa Crisis, the 1954–1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Offshore Islands Crisis, the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis, and the 1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis) was a brief armed conflict between the Communist People's ...

::*January 18, 1955 to January 20, 1955: Battle of Yijiangshan Islands :* August 23 to October 6, 1958:

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 ...

:* July 21, 1995 to March 23, 1996:

Third Taiwan Strait Crisis The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, also called the 1995–1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis or the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, was the effect of a series of missile tests conducted by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the waters surrounding Taiwan ...

1949–1979

* October 19, 1950: The

Battle of Chamdo The Battle of Chamdo (or Qamdo; ) occurred from 6 to 24 October 1950. It was a military campaign by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to take the Chamdo Region from a ''de facto'' independent Tibetan state.Shakya 1999 pp.28–32. The campa ...

* December 1951 to 1953:

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

(under the official banner of the Chinese People's Volunteers, although they are PLA regulars) * 1956 to 1959: Suppression of the Tibetan resistance movement * October 20, 1962 to November 21, 1962:

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

* September 11, 1967 to October 1, 1967:

Nathu La and Cho La clashes The Nathu La and Cho La clashes, sometimes referred to as the Sino-Indian War of 1967, consisted of a series of border clashes between India and China alongside the border of the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim, then an Indian protectorate. The ...

* 1969 to 1978:

Sino-Soviet border conflict The Sino-Soviet border conflict was a seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China in 1969, following the Sino-Soviet split. The most serious border clash, which brought the world's two largest communist states ...

* January 17 to January 19, 1974: Battle of Hoang Sa, a sea battle with the Republic of Vietnam Navy near the disputed

Xisha Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoang Sa Archipelago ( vi, Quần đảo Hoàng Sa, lit=Yellow Sand Archipelago), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. The archipelago includes about 130 small coral ...

* February 17 to March 16, 1979:

Military modernization (1980s)

* September 14–18, 1981:

North China Military Exercise The North China Military Exercise ( simplified Chinese: 华北大演习; traditional Chinese: 華北大演習) was a massive military exercise carried out by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in North China from September 14 to 18, 1981. With the p ...

, the largest

military exercise A military exercise or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat. This also serves the purpose of ensuring the co ...

since the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949 * 1985:

downsized the PLA significantly and demobilized around 1 million soldiers * 1986: Border skirmishes with

* May 20 to June 9, 1989: People's Liberation Army at Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

. * April 1, 2001:

Hainan Island incident The Hainan Island incident occurred on April 1, 2001, when a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet collided in mid-air, resulting in an inte ...

, a Chinese

People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chines ...

jet intercepting a US Navy reconnaissance aircraft collides with the US plane. The Chinese pilot is marked

missing in action Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...

(but assumed dead), while the crew of the US reconnaissance is detained by Chinese authorities, and released shortly after.