Between Divisions and Corps?

China's army is no longer the endless horde of sturdy peasant soldiers that acted like a sponge to absorb the damage inflicted by better equipped armies.

It is interesting that Chinese "group armies" consist of 6 maneuver brigades plus supporting elements. From the Pentagon's 2019 report on Chinese military power.

These group armies don't control much more than our previous Army divisions during the Iraq War expansion of 4 brigade combat teams (and I noticed this last year about the 13 PLAA group armies), which if memory serves me could command another BCT in a pinch.

You could add in GA equivalents for PLAF airborne forces and PLAN marine units, giving China 15 GAs or equivalents.

Our 10 active Army divisions (and add in 3 active Marine divisions) are back to triangular configuration. I don't know if divisional span of control still aims for 5 maneuver brigades.

Still, the Pentagon report calls the Chinese group armies equivalent to our corps. Really?

Organizationally with regard to officer ranks commanding that is no doubt true. And they have twice as many maneuver brigades as our divisions, so sort of.

But I'm guessing the support forces in those GAs aren't much bigger than our support forces for an American division.

It is also interesting that the Chinese have adopted from the Russians the much-hyped battalion tactical group. The difference is that rather than representing the usable combat forces in a Russian brigade, the Chinese battalion battlegroups are all functional within the brigades.

Still, for old-fashioned infantry, the People's Armed Police will be available to support the PLAA.