A Group Army (集團軍 in traditional chinese /集团军 in simplified chinese ), is a major Chinese military organization. Some may use or translate it loosely to mean the same as Army Group and through various time periods or history, depending on whether the military formation is under Nationalist China (ROC) or Communist China (PRC), Chinese Army Group or Group Army could be equivalent to field army or army group in other militaries but NOT necessarily so. This is because while 军 in Chinese means "corps" when classifying by size or number of troops, it also means (and more frequently so) in common and less precise military usage - any significant grouping of combat troops / i.e. army (usually corps size or larger; including Army or Army Group as per defined by most international military forces).
Adding confusion to multiple Chinese definitions of Group Army or Army Group is also made by literal translation or 'conversion' by non chinese translators or military experts who do not really understand 军 by itself does have different meanings; with situations made worse by Chinese usage - both from PRC and ROC which have used both meanings rather interchangeably.
Hence any military enthusiast should ideally look at the number of troops (size) or component units i.e. numbers of Brigade, Division, Corps or Army of any Chinese Group Army or Army Group before comparing and working out the corresponding equivalence to other military formation - especially those from the NATO or Western militaries.
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The People’s Liberation Army has 18 regular 集团军 or 'Group Armies'. However, a modern PRC Group Army in (PRC) China are corps-sized combined arms units with gross manpower ranging from 45,000 to 60,000 personnel. Each of the PLA’s seven military regions is assigned with 2 or 3 group armies.[1]
Other Chinese language sources from PRC typically describe each Group Army has having 2 or 3 Divisions (mainly Infantry but some are Armour, Motorized or Artillery Divisions) and further augmented by several Brigade or regiment sized 'combat arms'/ 'support-arms' formations e.g. artillery, armour, air defence artillery, motorized (infantry), aviation/helicopter regiment etc.
By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the National Revolutionary Army had organized 40 Group Armies. These were roughly equivalent to a field army in other military terminology.
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