The Lanzhou

Lanzhou

Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. A prefecture-level city, it is a key regional transportation hub, allowing areas further west to maintain railroad connections to the eastern half of the country....

 Military Region

PLA Military Region

The People's Liberation Army uses a system of military regions, of which there used to be eleven, but are now seven:* Shenyang Military Region* Beijing Military Region* Lanzhou Military Region* Jinan Military Region* Nanjing Military Region...

(
is one of seven military regions in the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. It directs all military and armed police forces in Xinjiang

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...

, Qinghai

Qinghai

Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...

, Gansu

Gansu

' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...

, Ningxia

Ningxia

Ningxia, formerly transliterated as Ningsia, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Located in Northwest China, on the Loess Plateau, the Yellow River flows through this vast area of land. The Great Wall of China runs along its northeastern boundary...

, and Shaanxi

Shaanxi

' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...

. The Ali area of northwest Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

 also falls under this Region. It is bordered to the south by the Chengdu Military Region, and to the north by Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

, the Altai Republic

Altai Republic

Altai Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the town of Gorno-Altaysk. The area of the republic is . Population: -Geography:...

, which is a political subdivision of the Russian Federation, and Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies

International Institute for Strategic Studies

The International Institute for Strategic Studies is a British research institute in the area of international affairs. It describes itself as "the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict"...

 attributes the Region with an estimated 220,000 personnel, a single armoured division, two motorised infantry divisions, one artillery division, one armoured, two motorised infantry, one artillery, one anti-aircraft brigades plus a single anti-tank regiment. However, due to on-going reorganisation and reductions virtually all figures for numbers of Chinese military formations should be taken as indicative only.

The Region includes 2 Group Armies (the 21st at Baoji

Baoji

Baoji is a prefecture-level city in Shaanxi province, China.-Geography:The prefecture-level city of Baoji has a population of 3,716,731 according to the 2010 Chinese census, inhabiting an area of . The city itself has a population of approximately 800,000. Surrounded on three sides by hills,...

 and the 47th at Lintong

Lintong

Lintong District is a district in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province of China. The Terracotta Army and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was discovered in March 1974 near this district....

) plus two Armed Police Units (the 7th and 63rd). Known smaller formations include the 12th Armoured Division ('84701 Unit') at Jiuquan, Gansu. The region also includes the Xinjiang Military District, unusual among PRC military districts in that it contains a significant number of combat troops (the 4th Infantry Division, 6th Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Division, and, apparently, the 11th Highland Motorised Infantry Division reportedly either at Urumqi

Ürümqi

Ürümqi , formerly Tihwa , is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country....

 or in the Karakoram

Karakoram

The Karakoram, or Karakorum , is a large mountain range spanning the borders between Pakistan, India and China, located in the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan , Ladakh , and Xinjiang region,...

Mountains (Blasko 2000).

Current Officers

• Wang Guosheng (Commander), since July 2007

Guan Kai (Deputy Commander) since April 2006

Guo Hongchao (Deputy Commander) since September 2006

Qiu Yanhan (Deputy Commander) since January 2002 (CC member)

Zhao Jianzhong (Deputy Commander) since July 2007

Zheng Shouzeng (Deputy Commander) since March 2000

Zhu Qingyi (Deputy Commander) since September 2006

Zou Gengren (Deputy Commander) since August 2000

Liu Yuejun (Chief-of-Staff) Since October 2007 (CCa member)

• Li Changcai (Political Officer), since September 2007

Li Guohui (Deputy Political Commissar ) since August 2008

Liu Zhenqi (Deputy Political Commissar ) since August 2004

Tao Fanggui (Deputy Political Commissar ) since August 2002

Wang Jianxiang (Deputy Political Commissar ) since February 2005

Zhang Qiuxiang (Deputy Political Commissar ) since December 2003

Wang Jianmin (Political Department Director) Since July 2006