Approximately 170,000 troops will be cut from the PLA's ground forces as part of the downsizing of China's armed forces announced by the country's president, Xi Jinping, at the military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Xi, also head of the Central Military Commission, said PLA troops numbers would be reduced by a total of 300,000.
The new policy will shrink the size of the PLA from 2.3 million to 2 million. Some 2,000 of the layoffs are likely to come from the PLA's performing arts troupe, which are frequently implicated in corruption scandals and are widely felt to no longer serve a significant purpose.
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