BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a smaller army with better combat capability and optimized structure as the military reform deepens.
Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and head of a leading group for deepening reform on national defense and the armed forces, made the remarks at a two-day conference on military reform, which ended Saturday.
"This is a major, inevitable change," Xi told the meeting. "We must seize the opportunity and make breakthroughs."
The president said changes must be made if China is to build a strong world-class army.
Xi announced in September last year that the armed forces would be cut down by 300,000 troops from the original 2.3 million.
Citing rapid changes to the global military environment, Xi spoke about the informationized modern warfare, noting that joint operations have grown to be the basic form of combat.
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