Nanjing Military Region
Nanjing Military Area Command

The Nanjing Military Region was comprised of three group armies, five military districts, the Shanghai Garrison, a helicopter regiment, a tankmen training facility, a special operations dadui, a missile brigade, and possibly two pontoon brigades.

The Nanjing MR covers the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces. The Nanjing Military Region is a critical division based in Nanjing, Jiangsu. Its southern section faces Taiwan and as such is home to a substantial number of China's medium-range missiles, as well as the front- line launching point for a joint air/sea assault on Taiwan.

In August 1999 Major-General Zhu Wenquan, commander of the PLA's First Group Army was made commander of the Nanjing military region, which oversees the Taiwan area. Zhu, who was also promoted to lieutenant-general, is known in military circles as an expert in amphibious warfare.

During a major military campaign against Taiwan, the Nanjing MR would become part of the so-called "Nanjing War Zone," which probably would include, at a minimum, the three Group Armies in the Nanjing MR, elements from Group Armies based in adjacent military regions (e.g., Guangzhou and Jinan MRs), as well as China's airborne and marine forces. Air assets would come primarily from the Nanjing MR augmented by mission-critical aircraft from other parts of China. The Navy would commit assets from both the East and South Sea Fleets, as well as mission-critical assets from the North Sea Fleet. Finally, all deployed SRBMs most likely would be available to the "war zone" commander.

The PLA started to organize and establish its new-type amphibious mechanized troops in 1999. In autumn of 2009, the PLA three services conducted a joint combat drill. During the drill, an amphibious mechanized division successfully established a command information system for the first time which connected various campaign and tactical levels of the troop units of the three services participating in the drill, organized and accomplished combat operations including joint fire strike, joint maritime defense, ground-air electronic confrontation and multi-directional three-dimensional breakthrough, marking the transformation of the PLA army’s amphibious operation from the single-arm operation to the joint operation of the three services based on information system.

After long-distance maneuvering, hundreds of combat vehicles of an amphibious mechanized division under the Nanjing Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reached a beach for maritime assault training in mid August 2012. The division has had two equipment renewals within 10 years. Its new-type amphibious combat vehicle equipped with domestically made top-notch information-based weapons including anti-tank guided-missile system, fire-control computer and laser rangefinder is superior in land and sea maneuvering performance and strong in firepower, possessing strong comprehensive protection capability and high information-based level. Its deployment marks that the amphibious combat equipment of the PLA army has reached world advanced level.

Currently, the officers and men of an amphibious mechanized division can drive the amphibious assault combat vehicles for limit training of maritime, super-long-distance and direct-sailing attack in organic troop units. The newly-equipped amphibious self-propelled howitzers are also incorporated into the echelon for landing drill so as to provide strong fire cover.

Leadership (as of : 03 March 2015)

	Wu Changhai, deputy political commissar of the Nanjing Military Area Command
	Former position: Director of the Political Department of the Nanjing Military Area Command
	Zhu Shengling, director of the joint logistics department, Nanjing Military Area Command
	Former position: Political commissar of the Shanghai Garrison Command
	Predecessor: Wu Changhai, current deputy political commissar of the Nanjing Military Area Command
	Li Kerang, deputy commander of the Guangzhou Military Area Command
	Former position: Commander of the Jiangsu provincial military command
	Predecessor: Sun Xinliang, retired
	Guo Zhenggang, deputy political commissar of the Zhejiang provincial military command, investigated on Feburary, 2015
	Former position: Director of the Political Department of the Zhejiang provincial military command
	Zhou Shaofeng, deputy commander of the Zhejiang provincial military command
	Former position: Head of the armament department under the Guangdong provincial military command

References

• Directory of PRC Military Personalities November 2002
• Directory of PRC Military Personalities Serold Hawaii Inc, June 1998
• PLA Activities Report November 2002 [Compiled by Serold Hawaii, Inc.]
• PLA Activities Report December 2002 [Compiled by Serold Hawaii, Inc.]
• PLA Activities Report January 2003 [Compiled by Serold Hawaii, Inc.]
• PLA Activities Report February 2003 [Compiled by Serold Hawaii, Inc.]
• Dennis J. Blasko. "PLA Ground Forces: Moving Toward a Smaller, More Rapidly Deployable, Modern Combined Arms Force" The People's Liberation Army as Organization: Reference Volume v1.0, James C. Mulvenon and Andrew N. D. Yang eds. (Santa Monico: RAND; 2002)