PLA Army

People's Liberation Army Ground Force 中国人民解放军陆军
Ground Force Flag of the People's Republic of China
Active	1927 – present
Country	People's Republic of China
Branch	People's Liberation Army
Type	Army
Size	1.6 million active
Aircraft	Approx. 992+
Engagements	World War II (1937-45) Chinese Civil War (1927, 1946) Korean War (1950-53) Sino-Indian War (1962) Sino-Soviet border conflict (1969) Vietnam War (1962-75) Sino-Vietnamese War (1979) Sino-Vietnamese conflicts 1979-90 (1979-90) Northern Mali conflict (2012- ) South Sudanese Civil War (2013- )
Commanders
Commander	General Li Zuocheng
Political Commissar	Lt. General Liu Lei
Aircraft flown
Attack helicopter	CAIC Z-10, Changhe Z-11, Harbin Z-19,
Observation helicopter	Changhe Z-11, Harbin Z-19
Trainer helicopter	Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil, Eurocopter EC120 Colibri
Utility helicopter	Aérospatiale Gazelle,
Transport	Shaanxi Y-8, Shaanxi Y-9, Xian Y-7

The People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) (simplified Chinese: 中国人民解放军陆军; traditional Chinese: 中國人民解放軍陸軍; pinyin: Zhōngguó Rénmín Jiěfàngjūn Lùjūn) is the land-based service branch of the People's Liberation Army and it is the largest and oldest branch of the entire Chinese armed forces. The PLAGF can trace its lineage from 1927; however, it was not officially established until 1948. As of 2016, the PLAGF has a strength of 1,600,000 personnel making it the largest standing army in the world. In addition, the People's Liberation Army Ground Force has an estimated 510,000 strong reserve force.

In February 1949 the existing large number of armies and divisions were regularised into up to seventy armies of three divisions each. While some, such as the 1st Army, survived for over fifty years, a number were quickly amalgamated and disestablished in the early 1950s. It appears that twenty per cent or even more of the seventy new armies were disestablished up to 1953; in 1952 alone, the 3rd, 4th, 10th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Armies were disbanded.

The PLA ground forces consist of conventionally armed main and regional units, which in 1987 made up over 70 percent of the PLA. It provided a good conventional defense, but in 1987 had only limited offensive potential and was poorly equipped for nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare. Main forces included about 35 group armies, comprising 118 infantry divisions, 13 armored divisions, and 33 artillery and antiaircraft artillery divisions, plus 71 independent regiments and 21 independent battalions of mostly support troops. Regional forces consisted of 73 divisions of border defense and garrison troops plus 140 independent regiments.