China, at Parade Showing Military Might, Says It Will Cut Its Forces by 300,000

 

 BEIJING — President Xi Jinping of China announced on Thursday that he would reduce the country’s military personnel by 300,000, using a speech marking 70 years since the end of World War II to present the People’s Liberation Army as a force for peace and regional stability.

The Chinese military now has more than two million personnel, and Mr. Xi has embarked on an accelerated modernization of the armed forces, which would shift spending from the traditional land forces to more advanced sea and air forces, which require fewer but better-trained personnel. But Mr. Xi described the cut as a gesture of peace at a time when China’s neighbors have grown increasingly worried about its territorial claims and military strength.

China’s military is “loyally committed to its sacred duty of defending the security of the motherland and the peaceful life of the people, and loyally committed to the sacred duty of safeguarding world peace,” Mr. Xi said at the start of a military parade in central Beijing.

“I announce that China will reduce military personnel numbers by 300,000,” he said.At the heart of a world capital that had been shut down for the occasion, some 12,000 Chinese troops began marching by Tiananmen Square on Thursday morning past Mr. Xi, in an attempt by the Communist Party to showcase the nation’s rising military might to a global audience.

Source: nytimes