A Thorny Rose By Any Other Name

China's People's Armed Police (PAP) are barely distinguishable from army troops but for the "police" stenciled on their vehicle hulls. The PAP is now subordinate to the actual People's Liberation Army (PLA) Army, which means that those PAP units transferred over the years from the PLAA and handed to the PAP are really in the same place as before despite their different name.

China has made it formal, as the latest Pentagon report on Chinese military power states:

The [Central Military Commission] acquisition of sole [command and control] over the PAP and the subordination of the China Coast Guard (CCG) to the PAP in 2018 could improve paramilitary forces’ ability to provide support to PLA operations under the authority of the joint theater commands.

I noted this possibility earlier and have commented that the PAP is essentially a hidden army for China despite publicity they give to the formal shrinking of the PLAA.

Given that China's rulers view the primacy of the Chinese Communist Party as the highest priority, this is no shock given that all threats to the party are part of a continuum and not divided between foreign and domestic threats as a non-communist state would view threats.

The PLAA will reinforce the PAP to fight internal enemies and the PAP will reinforce the PLAA to fight external enemies.