China’s troop-cut plan more about modernization than peace - analysts

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping’s announcement Thursday that China will cut its military by 300,000 troops was couched in the language of peace. Yet analysts say that it was intended as a move to modernize and strengthen, not diminish, the country’s armed forces.

“War is the sword of Damocles that still hangs over mankind,” Xi said in a speech at Tiananmen Square commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific. “We must learn the lessons of history and dedicate ourselves to peace.”