CRI听力:China to Finish Military Cuts by 2017

"Here today, I'm announcing that we will be cutting the number of PLA troops by 300-thousand."

Chinese President Xi Jinping making the announcement of a reduction of the Chinese military over the next 2-years.

Yang Yujun with the Ministry of Defense says the reduction is in-line with the overall philosophy of the Chinese government.

"It is a significant political decision and declaration of the Communist Party of China and the government. It shows China always wants to show the banner of peace, development and cooperation. We have a mandate to adhere to the path of peaceful development. We only have a defense policy that is defensive in nature. China will remain a staunch force in maintaining regional stability and global peace."

Yang Yujun says the cuts announced by Xi Jinping are also a practical move.

"The move will mainly target troops equipped with outdated armaments, administrative staff and non-combatant personnel, to optimize the structure of Chinese forces. The reform will adopt a step-by-step approach and will be completed by the end of 2017."

Xi Jinping's announcement of a military cut is the 4th since the Reform and Opening Up process first began in the early 1980s.

Back in 1985, more than a million soldiers were released by the PLA, the largest-ever cut in China.

Once again in 1997, another 500-thousand PLA positions were eliminated, reducing the total number of soldiers in the military to 2.5-million.

Another 200-thousand military positions were eliminated between 2003 and 2005, putting the PLA ranks at 2.3-million.

Yang Yujun says the cut will help accelerate the progress in information technology and boost military quality and that the country will maintain a moderate size of defense budget.

The Chinese government announced earlier this year that the Defense budget has been increased by 10-percent to around 145-billion U.S. dollars.

That's less than 1.5-percent of GDP.

The world average is 2.6-percent.

Chinese military spending is still less than one-fifth the amount the United States spends every year on its military.

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.