Management System of Military Cadres

In 2005, the PLA began to reform the evaluation, selection and appointment system for military cadres, and to institute a system to evaluate commanding officers. It conducts both evaluation and examination in selecting leading officers at the level of deputy regimental commanders for combat troops. It has improved the regulations on reserve cadres, and works to establish a long-term mechanism to select and train outstanding young cadres. In March 2006, with the approval of the CMC, the four general headquarters/departments jointly promulgated the Provisions of the PLA on Rewarding Technical Experts, which gives awards and allowances to military technical experts.

In June 2005, the State Council and the CMC promulgated the Regulations of the PLA on Contract Civilians, deciding to introduce a system of employing contract civilians to fill some support posts in the military, so that active-duty officers, who are limited in number, mainly take up command and combat posts. The regulations contain specific provisions on the nature and status of contract civilians, the procedures of their employment, and the coordination of the civil and military authorities' relevant policies. In 2006, the PLA started the employment of contract civilians.

Officers and non-commissioned officers transferred to civilian work are resettled in one of the following two ways: state-planned job assignment, and finding jobs by themselves. The State Council has an office for overseeing the nationwide resettlement of such officers. The provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the central government) have corresponding offices for resettling such officers in their respective administrative areas. The General Political Department is in charge of PLA-wide transfer of officers and non-commissioned officers to civilian work, and Party committees and political organs at and above the regiment level are responsible for transferring officers to civilian work in their own units. The provincial military commands (garrison commands at the same level) are responsible for turning over PLA officers and non-commissioned officers transferred to civilian work in their respective provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the central government. In 2005, the state and the PLA began to deepen the reform and adjustment of the policies on resettling officers and non-commissioned officers transferred to civilian work.

Supporting the Government and Loving the People

The PLA attaches great importance to mass work, taking supporting the government and loving the people as its major thrust. The political organs of the four general headquarters/departments and the military area commands, the Navy, Air Force and Second Artillery Force all have offices for mass work. The political organs of corps, divisions (brigades) and regiments also have special officers in charge of such work. These offices and officers are responsible for maintaining contacts and coordination with governments at all levels. Education in supporting the government and loving the people is conducted PLA-wide. The PLA participates in national economic development, emergency rescue and disaster relief, and public welfare activities.

In the past two years, the engineering troops of the Army, Navy and Air Force have taken part in more than 430 key construction projects for transportation, hydropower, communication and energy infrastructure. The PLA has assisted in building new socialist villages in the countryside, and provided regular assistance to poor farmers in more than 19,000 villages. It has helped build over 48,000 small public projects such as water-saving irrigation projects, drinking water projects for both people and livestock, roads, and hydropower projects, bringing immediate benefits to nearly 800,000 people. In addition, it has helped build or enlarge 211 primary and secondary schools, enabling 142,000 school dropouts to return to class. PLA troops stationed in China's western region have taken part in such ecological engineering projects as the construction of shelterbelts and the improvement of small drainage areas. They have planted 210 million trees and sown grass on more than 13 million sq m of land. PLA hospitals have established regular assistance relations with more than 400 county or township hospitals in the western region. They have helped train key members of the medical staff, made rounds of visits offering free medical consultation and treatment, and donated medical equipment and medicine. The PLA and PAPF have dispatched over 340,000 troops to take part in more than 2,800 emergency rescue and disaster-relief operations, involving more than 40,000 vehicles, flown more than 2,000 sorties (including the use of helicopters), evacuated over 3.4 million people and prevented economic losses of several billion yuan. At the end of 2006, the PLA donated 230 million yuan and over 930,000 cotton-padded clothes and quilts to disaster- and poverty-stricken areas.

In June 2005, the State Council and the CMC promulgated the Regulations on Participation of the PLA in Emergency Rescue and Disaster Relief, prescribing the PLA's main tasks, coordination with local people's governments, limits of authority and procedures for employing troops, joint command with local authorities, preparations and readiness, financial and material support, etc., for such operations.

V. People's Armed Police Force

The People's Armed Police Force (PAPF) is charged with the fundamental task of safeguarding national security, maintaining social stability and ensuring that the people live and work in peace and contentment. It strives to make itself a powerful, disciplined and politically reliable force.

Structure and Organization

As a component of China's armed forces and subordinate to the State Council, the PAPF is under the dual leadership of the State Council and the CMC. The State Council exercises leadership over the PAPF through relevant functional departments, assigns routine tasks to it, decides its size and number of organizations, and is responsible for its command, operations, and financial and material support. The PAPF has an independent budgetary status in the financial expenditure of the state. The CMC is responsible for the PAPF's organizational structure, management of officers, command, training and political work. It exercises leadership over the PAPF through the four general headquarters/departments. In terms of conducting public security operations and relevant capability building, the PAPF General Headquarters is under the leadership and command of the Ministry of Public Security, and the PAPF units at and below the contingent level are under the leadership and command of the public security organs at the same level. The PAPF has a total force of 660,000.

The PAPF consists mainly of the internal security force and forces guarding gold mines, forests, water and electricity supply, and communications. The border security, firefighting and security guard forces are also components of the PAPF. The PAPF General Headquarters is the leading and commanding organ that directs and administers the internal security force and forces guarding gold mine, forest, water and electricity, and communications, etc., and provides guidance to other forces subordinate to the PAPF. Under it are the headquarters, political department and logistics department. The PAPF has one commander-in-chief, one first political commissar (assumed concurrently by the Minister of Public Security), one political commissar, and several deputy commanders-in-chief and deputy political commissars. The PAPF internal security force is composed of contingents at the level of the province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government) and armed police divisions. Contingents, detachments and squadrons are instituted at the province, prefecture, and county levels, respectively. The armed police divisions have regiments, battalions and companies in battle order, which are stationed in a number of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. The forces guarding gold mines, forests, water and electricity supply, and communications have their own headquarters, which function as their leading and commanding organs. The PAPF General Headquarters has an educational institution directly under it. The contingent headquarters and the headquarters of the forces guarding gold mines, forests, water and electricity supply, and communications have elementary command colleges under them.

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