Joint Staff Department
Chinese military command structure
The Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission (JSDCMC) (Chinese: 中央军委联合参谋部) is the operational command organ of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), superseding the former PLA General Staff Department. It was established on 11 January 2016, under the military reforms of Central Military Commission (CMC) chairman Xi Jinping.
Headquartered in Beijing, the Joint Staff Department (JSD) is under the absolute leadership of the CMC and likely serves as an institutional link between members of the CMC and post-2016 PLA theater commands. According to the JSD, its main duties include carrying out combat support planning and combat command support, studying and formulating military strategy and requirements, organizing combat capability assessment, arranging and instructing joint training; and combat readiness and routine war preparedness work.
Organization
Prior to the 2016 transition, the General Staff Department comprised the following bureaus:
Combat Operations Command
Combat Communications
Intelligence
Mobilization
Electronic Warfare
Foreign Relations
Management
Within the present Joint Staff Department are the following bureaus:
General Office (办公厅)
Guard Bureau (警卫局)
Political Work Bureau (政治工作局)
Operations Bureau (作战局)
Strategic Campaign Training Bureau (战略战役训练局)
Intelligence Bureau (情报局)
Navigation Bureau (导航局)
Information and Communications Bureau (信息通信局)
Battlefield Environmental Protection Bureau (战场环境保障局)
Military Requirements Bureau (军事需求局)
The Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department, formerly the 2nd Bureau or '2PLA' under the GSD, is the most well-known bureau subordinate to the JSD for its role in espionage.
List of chiefs
From 2022 to January 2026, the Chief of Joint Staff Department was General Liu Zhenli. The current deputy chiefs are Lieutenant General Xu Qiling, Major General Shao Yuanming and Lieutenant General Cao Qingfeng. Prior to the 2016 rename, department heads were referred to in English as Chief of the General Staff or Chief of the General Staff Department.
“Joint Staff Department” enters the record as chinese military command structure. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Joint, Staff and Department can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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