People's Liberation Army General Staff Department
| 中国人民解放军总参谋部 | |
 Emblem of the People's Liberation Army | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | October 1954 |
| Preceding |
|
| Dissolved | January 2016 |
| Type | Administrative agency |
| Jurisdiction | People's Liberation Army |
| Parent department | Central Military Commission |
The People's Liberation Army General Staff Department (Chinese: 中国人民解放军总参谋部; pinyin: Zhōngguó Rénmín Jiěfàngjūn Zǒngcānmóubù), preceded by the General Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Committee (1949–1954), was the command organ and headquarters for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China. Its duties included PLA Operations Command, Recruitment, Mobilization, Formation, Training and Administration. The PLA General Staff Headquarters was located in Beijing and its last commander was General Fang Fenghui.
The General Staff was under the absolute leadership of the Central Military Commission and (especially during the long Maoist era) under the political supervision of the PLA General Political Department.
During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, commonly referred to as "the 2nd Bureau" (the PLA adopted the numbering system of most continental European armies for staff bureaus) was active in funding, arming and training dozens of Asian, African and Latin American militant groups and liberation movements; especially in the case of Africa, the Intelligence Bureau "supplied, at one time or another, nearly all of the various African liberation movements with arms, money, food and medicines".[1] Among those who received military training were Pol Pot (leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia) and Abimael Guzmán (leader of the Shining Path in Peru).[2]
The General Staff was disbanded as part of the January 2016 military reform and its operations were consolidated into the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission.[3]
List of General Staff Bureaus[]
- Combat Operations Command
- Combat Communications
- Military Intelligence
- Mobilization
- Electronic Warfare
- Foreign Relations
- Management
List of Chiefs of the General Staff[]
Note: From the Proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and until the creation of the General Staff Department in 1954, the duties of the Chief of the General Staff were performed by General (later Marshal) Xu Xiangqian, who held the title Chief of Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Committee of the Central People's Government.
| No. | Portrait | Chief of the General Staff | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Senior General Su Yu 粟裕 (1907–1984) | October 1954 | October 1958 | 4 years |  PLA Ground Force | |
| 2 | Senior General Huang Kecheng 黄克诚 (1902–1986) | October 1958 | September 1959 | 11 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| 3 | Senior General Luo Ruiqing 罗瑞卿 (1906–1978) | September 1959 | December 1965 | 6 years, 3 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| 4 | General Yang Chengwu 杨成武 (1914–2004) | December 1965 | March 1968 | 2 years, 3 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| 5 | General Huang Yongsheng 黄永胜 (1910–2004) | March 1968 | September 1971 | 3 years, 6 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| Vacant 1971–75 | ||||||
| 6 | Deng Xiaoping 邓小平 (1904–1997) | January 1975 | March 1980 | 5 years, 2 months |  People's Liberation Army | |
| 7 | General Yang Dezhi 杨得志 (1911–1994) | March 1980 | November 1987 | 7 years, 8 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| 8 | General Chi Haotian 迟浩田 (born 1929) | November 1987 | November 1992 | 5 years | PLA Ground Force | |
| 9 | General Zhang Wannian 张万年 (1928–2015) | November 1992 | September 1995 | 2 years, 10 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| 10 | General Fu Quanyou 傅全有 (born 1930) | September 1995 | November 2002 | 7 years, 2 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| 11 | General Liang Guanglie 梁光烈 (born 1940) | November 2002 | September 2007 | 4 years, 10 months | PLA Ground Force | |
| 12 | General Chen Bingde 陈炳德 (born 1941) [4] | September 2007 | October 2012 | 5 years, 1 month | PLA Ground Force | |
| 13 | General Fang Fenghui 房峰辉 (born 1951) | October 2012 | January 2016 | 3 years, 3 months | PLA Ground Force | |
For the new office, see Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission.
References[]
- ^ Gérald Arboit, "The Chinese intelligence services in Africa", in Handbook on China and Globalization, pp. 305-321, edited by Huiyao Wang and Lu Miao, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019
- ^ Maoism: A Global History – how China exported revolution around the world, South China Morning Post, 8 March 2019
- ^ "国防部新闻事务局官微发布中央军委机关英文译名". People's Daily Online. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
- ^ (in Chinese) RFA: 陈炳德晋升为中国军队总参谋长 Archived 2007-06-27 at archive.today
- Central Military Commission (China)
- People's Liberation Army General Staff