failed to meet active-duty entry requirements and conduct remedial training in the reserves until they are able to join the active-duty force.
The PLA is working to improve reserve mobilization, which anecdotal evidence suggests is hindered by unclear processes. In March 2023, during the PRC’s annual “Two Sessions,” PLA deputies suggested that the PRC should study and prioritize wartime legislation, including the introduction of laws such as the mobilization of reserve forces. Chinese documents also suggest that Reserve Force equipment is old; one report in 2018 stated that more than 70 percent of air defense artillery and artillery equipment is at or beyond its maximum service life. Some of the equipment is no longer manufactured and repair requires cannibalization.
The PLA Reserve Force does not include militias, the Civil Air Defense, or myriad other groups (e.g., the People’s Armed Police or the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC)).
PEOPLE'S ARMED POLICE (PAP)
The PAP is a component of the PRC’s armed forces and an armed wing of the CCP with an estimated 660,000 personnel. In the 2020 National Defense University's Science of Military Strategy, the primary responsibilities of the PAP include maintaining political, institutional and regime security, handling emergency rescue, counter-terrorism, air support, maritime rights protection, administrative law enforcement, and defense operations. The PAP is organized into three main parts: the Internal Security Corps, the Mobile Corps, and the CCG. The Internal Security Corps covers each of the PRC’s provinces, provincial-level cities, and “autonomous” regions. There is not yet a reported permanent presence of the PAP in the Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of Hong Kong or Macao. The Mobile Corps is comprised of myriad PAP units placed to reinforce the Internal Security Corps and provide flexibility in responding to internal security issues. Mobile Corps units are concentrated around non-Han ethnic regions in the West and South (Xinjiang, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai) as well as the major cities of Beijing and Shanghai. Xinjiang is a particular focus of the PAP due to alleged separatist activity, as well as its proximity to areas of unrest in Central Asia.
On July 1st, 2020, the standing committee of the PRC’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, approved a revision to the Law on the People’s Armed Police Force which officially recognized the CMC singular command of the PAP, identified the PAP as an important part of the armed forces that fall under the leadership of the CCP, as well as affirming its primary mission set of handling security emergencies, maintaining stability, conducting counter-terrorism operations, and executing maritime law enforcement and rescue. This legal amendment codified and deepened the substantial reforms of 2018, when command of the PAP was centralized under the Central Party Committee and the CMC after decades of dual-leadership under the CMC and State Council (a PRC government body); the China Coast Guard was subordinated to the PAP; and myriad auxiliary duties (e.g., protecting gold mines, firefighting, etc.) were removed from the PAP’s purview to focus its mission on PRC domestic and international security. Chinese media noted that the 2020
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
