The Beijing Military Region was one of seven military regions for the Chinese

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the China, People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five Military branch, service branches: the People's ...

. From the mid 1980s to 2017, it had administration of all military affairs within

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

city,

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

city,

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

province,

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-leve ...

province, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Region is mainly responsible for defending the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

from Mongolia and Russia, and also protects the capital of China, and had the largest number of military personnel of any of the seven regions active from 1985-2017. The Region has now been disbanded and superseded by the

Central Theater Command The Central Theater Command () is one of the five theater commands of the People's Liberation Army of China, and was founded on 1 February 2016. Its predecessors were the Beijing Military Region and Jinan Military Region. The International I ...

and

Northern Theater Command The Northern Theater Command (is) one of the five theater commands of the People's Liberation Army, founded on 1 February 2016. Its predecessor is the Shenyang Military Region and Beijing Military Region. Its headquarters is in the Heping Dis ...

. Both the 63rd and 65th Corps/Group Armies were stationed in the Beijing area after returning from the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

and remained in the region ever since, becoming Group Armies after 1985. The 13th Air Force Corps was stationed at

Shijiazhuang Shijiazhuang (; ; Mandarin: ), formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang, is the capital and most populous city of China’s North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about southwest of Beijin ...

in Hebei Province from 1971 to 1976. On 26 October 1988 the 17th Air Division was reorganized into the Beijing MR Training Base (serials 6xx2x). In reductions announced in September 2003, the 24th Group Army (

), and the

63rd Group Army The 63rd Group Army (), former 63rd Corps and 63rd Army Corps, was a military formation of China's People's Liberation Army existed from 1949 to 2003. Chinese Civil War and Korean War The 63rd Corps () was created in January 1949 under ''the Reg ...

(Shanxi) were both disbanded. About the same time, the 10th Air Corps, also stationed in the region, was disestablished (PLAAF 2010). The

International Institute for Strategic Studies The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England. The 2017 Global Go To Think ...

attributed to the command 300,000 personnel in 2006, consisting of three group armies (the 27th Group Army,

38th Group Army The 82nd Group Army (), formerly the 38th Group Army, is a military formation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Ground Forces (PLAGF). The 82nd Group Army is one of twelve total group armies of the PLAGF, the largest echelon of ground forces ...

, and the

65th Group Army The 81st Group Army (), formerly the 65th Group Army, is a military formation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Ground Forces (PLAGF). The 81st Group Army is one of twelve total group armies of the PLAGF, the largest echelon of ground forc ...

), two armoured divisions, one mechanised infantry division, five motorised divisions, one artillery division, three armoured, seven motorised infantry, four artillery, a total of five various anti-aircraft brigades, and one anti-tank regiment. The command is also augmented by the PLA Beijing Garrison, which consists of the 1st and

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * H ...

guard divisions (Military Police), and the Beijing Garrison Honor Guard Battalion and Color Guard Company, both of which are charged with public duties. The command is also home to the PLA Navy (PLAN)

North Sea Fleet The Northern Theater Command Navy (), or the North Sea Fleet (NSF; ) is one of the three fleets of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, under the Northern Theater Command. In September 1950 the Qingdao Army Base was redesignated as a naval ...

. The last commander was General Song Puxuan (2014-2016). The political commissar was General Liu Fulian.

History and mission

The Beijing Military Region traces its lineage to the establishment of the Northwest Military Region in May 1948. It was renamed the Beijing Military Region in 1955, when the Inner Mongolia Military Region was downgraded to a district, and was folded into the Beijing Military Region. The Beijing Military Region is primarily charged with protecting the capital. Because of its location in the capital, the Beijing Military Region was the most important of the seven military regions. Each unit from the Beijing Military Region contributed forces to Beijing for the crackdown on the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, and these elements remained deployed in Beijing long after using deadly force to remove the demonstrators. In addition to guarding the capital, the Beijing Military Region is also in charge of training key personnel for leadership positions through the numerous military academies in the region.

Commanders

* Yang Chengwu (1955-1958) * Yang Yong (1958-1963) * Zheng Weishan (1963-1971) *

Li Desheng Li Desheng (; 4 May 1916 – 8 May 2011) was a general in the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He was born in Xin County, Henan, China, an area now known as the "Cradle of Generals" for the large number of senior military officers born in the ...

(1971-1974) * Chen Xilian (1974-1980) * Qin Jiwei (1980-1987) *Zhou Yibing (1987-1990) *Wang Chengbin (1990-1993) *Li Laizhu (1993-1997) *Li Xinliang (1997-2002) * Zhu Qi (2002-2007) * Fang Fenghui (2007-2012) *

Zhang Shibo Zhang Shibo (; born February 1952) is a retired general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army of China. He served as commander of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison, commander of the Beijing Military Region, and president of the PLA National Defence Un ...

(2012-2014) * Song Puxuan (2014-2016)

Structure

The organizational structure as of 2016 was as follows:http://www.giga-hamburg.de/dl/download.php?d=/content/ias/archiv/cds/cds_0805.pdf, p. 24. *Leadership **Commander **Deputy Commanders **Regional Chief-of-Staff **Political Commissar Fu Tinggui **Deputy Political Commissars **Political Department Director *Headquarters Department ** HQ Battalion

Direct Troops

* 27th Group Army ** Army HQ *** Army HQ Battalion *

PLA Beijing Garrison

*1st Guard Division ** Beijing Garrison Honor Guard Battalion * 3rd Guard Division *17th Guard Regiment

Nickname

Organizations affiliated with the Beijing Military Region often use the nickname "comrade" (), including the Comrade Performance Troupe () and the ''Comrade Newspaper'' ().

References

{{coord missing, China Military regions of the People's Liberation Army Military units and formations established in 1955 Military units and formations disestablished in 2016 1955 establishments in China