Chinese Marines corps to be expanded to 100,000 troops 81703171.

The South China Morning Post quoted an anonymous military source who said that two special operations brigades had already been incorporated into the PLA Navy's Marine Corps, taking the number of soldiers to 20,000 with more to come. Another source said that "the PLA Navy Marine Corps will expand to 100,000 troops, including six brigades, to fulfill new national missions". He added that overall troop numbers of the PLA Navy would increase by 15 percent from the current 235,000. An analyst said that the 100,000-person expansion sounded like nothing more than sheer guesswork. If China's Marine Corps were to have an expansion to 100,000 troops, that would account for 42.6 percent of the current 235,000 troops of the Navy, much more than 15 percent.

The South China Morning Post commented that the PLA's decision to expand the Marine Corps reflects its strategic transition from relying on large quantities of troops to win land battles to relying on highly specialized troops to deal with diverse security challenges. The Hong Kong-based newspaper's report also mentioned that China is building a naval base in Djibouti but hasn't revealed how many troops the base will accommodate. Funded and built by Chinese enterprises, the Gwadar Port in Pakistan doesn't have any military facilities, but Chinese naval vessels are expected to be seen there in the near future, said the report.