*BEIJING : *

China’s military has cut the size of its land-based army by about 50 percent. The strategic shift in the world’s largest force has been designed totransform the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a comprehensive modernforce, a report said, PTI has reported.

The two million-strong Chinese military has significantly boosted its navy,air force and new strategic units and downsized its land-based army, theHong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported quoting a state-runXinhua report.

In a feature report highlighting the “transformational changes” made by thePLA, Xinhua on Sunday said “this new data is unprecedented in the historyof the PLA – the army now accounts for less than 50 per cent of the totalnumber of PLA troops; almost half of our non-combatant units have been maderedundant, and the number of officers in the PLA has been reduced by 30 percent.”by Taboolalink:Sponsored Linkslink:.linkCancer Causing Foods You Could Be Eating EverydayActive Feellink

In the last few years, the PLA has downsized its military by retrenchingthree lakh troops under the military reforms initiated by President XiJinping. But it still remained the world’s largest military with twomillion personnel in the ranks.

The statement indicated that the four other branches of the PLA – the navy,air force, rocket force and strategic support force, which is responsiblefor areas such as cyberwarfare – now together make up more than half of theChinese military, overtaking the army, which has traditionally been thedominant unit of the PLA.