The 23rd Army was an army of the Chinese
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...
, active from 1949.
The army originally consisted of the 67th,
68th Division, and 69th Divisions. However, the 68th Division was disestablished in August 1952.
It was active during the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
. The People's Republic had planned to rotate all troops in Korea by the end of 1953, and the Chinese Central Military Commission authorized the 23rd, 24th and 46th Corps to replace 20th, 27th and 42nd Corps by September 1952.
[.]
In Korea, under Commander Zhong Guochu, with Commissar Lu Sheng, it was assigned to east coast defence duties with the 67th, 69th and
73rd Divisions assigned.
It was one of the eight armies identified by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
as being active in the
Shenyang Military Region as of 15 March 1967.
Dennis Blasko's 2002 RAND chapter identified it in the Shenyang MR with its headquarters in
Harbin
Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...
. He stated that it included the
69th Motorised Infantry Division/Brigade at Harbin, another motorized infantry brigade, and armored, artillery, and anti-aircraft brigades.
The army was disbanded in a cycle of reductions that began in 2003. Two units which were resubordinated directly to the Shenyang MR headquarters were the
68th Motorized Infantry Brigade, Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, and the 69th Motorized Infantry Division, Harbin, Heilongjiang.
[Blasko, 2006, 76]
Citations
References
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{{Corps and Armies of the People's Liberation Army
Field armies of the People's Liberation Army
Military units and formations established in the 1940s
Military units and formations disestablished in the 2000s