BEIJING: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) established the PLA Army’s leading organ, the PLA Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force on December 31, 2015. An inauguration ceremony was held in Beijing on the same day.
President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), conferred military flags to the three military forces and addressed the ceremony.
President Xi Jinping pointed out that the establishment of the PLA Army’s leading organ, the PLA Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force is an important decision made by the CPC Central Committee and the CMC to realize the Chinese Dream and the Dream of a Strong Military, and a strategic initiative to build a modern military power system with Chinese characteristics.
Xi said that the PLA Army should optimize its power structure and troop formation, speed up the Army’s transformation from the regional defensive type to the full-spectrum combat type, so as to build a powerful, modern and new-type Army.
Xi stressed that the PLA Rocket Force is China’s core strategic deterrence power. The PLA Rocket Force should strengthen the trustworthy and reliable nuclear deterrence and nuclear counter-attack capabilities, intensify the construction of medium and long range precision strike power, and reinforce the strategic check-and-balance capability, so as to build a powerful and modern Rocket Force.
Xi also emphasized that the PLA Strategic Support Force is a new-type combat force to maintain national security and an important growth point of the PLA’s combat capabilities.
The commander and political commissar of the PLA Army are Li Zuocheng and Liu Lei respectively. The commander and political commissar of the PLA Rocket Force are Wei Fenghe and Wang Jiasheng respectively. And the commander and political commissar of the PLA Strategic Support Force are Gao Jin and Liu Fulian respectively.
Liu Lei, political commissar of the PLA Army, Wang Jiasheng, political commissar of the PLA Rocket Force, and Liu Fulian, political commissar of the PLA Strategic Support Force, delivered speeches on behalf of their forces respectively at the ceremony.
Fan Changlong, member of the political bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the CMC, read out the CMC’s order and decision, endorsed by President Xi Jinping, to establish the PLA Army’s leading organ, the PLA Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force at the ceremony. Xu Qiliang, member of the political bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the CMC, presided over the ceremony.
Chang Wanquan, Fang Fenghui, Zhang Yang, Zhao Keshi, Zhang Youxia, Wu Shengli and Ma Xiaotian also attended the ceremony.
