China to carry out biggest military overhaul in a decade

Xi Jinping has changed the structure of China's armed forces, strengthening the cyber component. Experts saw signs of Beijing's bet on an information confrontation.

 

In the Chinese army, strategic support forces will be disbanded and a new unit will be created - information support forces. This order was given by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the government said.

The Strategic Support Forces emerged nine years ago, in 2015, to coordinate efforts in cyber warfare and political confrontation. Aerospace and cyber units previously subordinate to this structure will become independent and will operate in parallel with information support forces.

The new unit will provide “key support in coordinating the creation and use of a cyber information system,” Xi Jinping emphasized.

Bloomberg calls these changes the largest reorganization of the Chinese military since 2015.

Bloomberg notes that the reorganization occurs against the backdrop of competition with the United States for global influence, as well as accusations from Western countries of hacking activity. The changes are aimed at improving the readiness of the armed forces for the “information” conditions of war, according to Cao Weidong, a former senior researcher at the Naval Research Academy of the Chinese Army.

The previous commander of the Strategic Support Forces, Ju Qiansheng, stopped appearing in public in the middle of last year. In 2023, Chinese authorities carried out large-scale purges of senior command after discovering widespread corruption in the military.

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, hundreds of senior army officers and thousands of senior party officials have been arrested, disappeared or “committed to suicide” - driven to suicide or framed as suicide, Politico claimed.