People's Liberation Army General Staff Department

The People's Liberation Army General Staff Department (GSD, 1954–2016; simplified Chinese: 中国人民解放军总参谋部; traditional Chinese: 中國人民解放軍總參謀部; pinyin: Zhōngguó Rénmín Jiěfàngjūn Zǒngcānmóubù), preceded by the General Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Committee (1949–1954), was the former command organ and headquarters for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China. Its duties included PLA Operations Command, Recruitment, Mobilization, Formation, Training and Administration. The PLA General Staff Headquarters was located in Beijing and its last commander was General Fang Fenghui.

People's Liberation Army
General Staff Department
中国人民解放军总参谋部
Emblem of the PLA
Agency overview
FormedOctober 1954
Preceding
  • General Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Committee
    (1949–1954)
DissolvedJanuary 2016
TypeAdministrative agency
JurisdictionPeople's Liberation Army
Parent departmentCentral Military Commission

The General Staff was under the absolute leadership of the Central Military Commission and (especially during the long Maoist era) under the political supervision of the PLA General Political Department.

During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, commonly referred to as "the 2nd Bureau" (the PLA adopted the numbering system of most continental European armies for staff bureaus) was active in funding, arming and training dozens of Asian, African and Latin American militant groups and liberation movements; especially in the case of Africa, the Intelligence Bureau "supplied, at one time or another, nearly all of the various African liberation movements with arms, money, food and medicines".[1] Among those who received military training were Pol Pot (leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia) and Abimael Guzmán (leader of the Shining Path in Peru).[2]

The General Staff was disbanded as part of the January 2016 military reform and its operations were consolidated into the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission.[3]

List of General Staff Bureaus
  • Combat Operations Command
  • Combat Communications
  • Military Intelligence
  • Mobilization
  • Electronic Warfare
  • Foreign Relations
  • Management

List of Chiefs of the General Staff

Note: From the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and until the creation of the General Staff Department in 1954, the duties of the Chief of the General Staff were performed by General (later Marshal) Xu Xiangqian, who held the title Chief of Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Committee of the Central People's Government.

No. Chief of the General StaffTook officeLeft officeTime in office
1
Yu, SuSenior General
Su Yu
粟裕
(1907–1984)		October 1954October 19584 years
2
Kecheng, HuangSenior General
Huang Kecheng
黄克诚
(1902–1986)		October 1958September 195911 months
3
Ruiqing, LuoSenior General
Luo Ruiqing
罗瑞卿
(1906–1978)		September 1959December 19656 years, 3 months
4
Chengwu, YangGeneral
Yang Chengwu
杨成武
(1914–2004)		December 1965March 19682 years, 3 months
5
Yongsheng, HuangGeneral
Huang Yongsheng
黄永胜
(1910–2004)		March 1968September 19713 years, 6 months
Vacant
1971–75
6
Xiaoping, DengDeng Xiaoping
邓小平
(1904–1997)		January 1975March 19805 years, 2 months
7
Xiaoping, DengGeneral
Yang Dezhi
杨得志
(1911–1994)		March 1980November 19877 years, 8 months
8
Haotian, ChiGeneral
Chi Haotian
迟浩田
(born 1929)		November 1987November 19925 years
9
Wannian, ZhangGeneral
Zhang Wannian
张万年
(1928–2015)		November 1992September 19952 years, 10 months
10
Quanyou, FuGeneral
Fu Quanyou
傅全有
(born 1930)		September 1995November 20027 years, 2 months
11
Guanglie, LiangGeneral
Liang Guanglie
梁光烈
(born 1940)		November 2002September 20074 years, 10 months
12
Bingde, ChenGeneral
Chen Bingde
陈炳德
(born 1941)
[4]		September 2007October 20125 years, 1 month
13
Fenghui, FangGeneral
Fang Fenghui
房峰辉
(born 1951)		October 2012January 20163 years, 3 months

For the new office, see Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission.

References
  1. Gérald Arboit, "The Chinese intelligence services in Africa", in Handbook on China and Globalization, pp. 305-321, edited by Huiyao Wang and Lu Miao, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019
  2. Maoism: A Global History – how China exported revolution around the world, South China Morning Post, 8 March 2019
  3. "国防部新闻事务局官微发布中央军委机关英文译名". People's Daily Online. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  4. (in Chinese) RFA: 陈炳德晋升为中国军队总参谋长 Archived 2007-06-27 at Archive.today
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