The Chinese media Bowen Press reported that, in addition to its disarmament reform program of 300,000 layoffs, the Chinese army will further reduce the scale of its ground forces, substantially cutting one army group in each of the five combat regions. The current 300,000 army layoffs mainly involve non-combat troops, including administrative organs, logistics, schools, hospitals and other functions. However, structurally, the ground forces among the five military entities are still too large as there are 18 army groups of 800,000 members, which accounts for one third of the total of all PLA troops.
Source: Bowen Press, November 24, 2016
http:// bowenpress.com/news/bowen_148168.html