| Agency Name: | Defense Mobilization Department of the Central Military Commission |
| Nativename A: | 中央军委国防动员部 |
| Seal: | China Emblem PLA.svg |
| Formed: | 11 January 2016 |
| Jurisdiction: | People's Liberation Army |
| Headquarters: | Ministry of National Defense compound ("August 1st Building"), Beijing |
| Chief1 Name: | Liu Faqing |
| Chief1 Position: | Director |
| Agency Type: | Functional department of the Central Military Commission |
| Parent Department: | Central Military Commission |
The National Defense Mobilization Department of the Central Military Commission[1] is a chief organ under the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China with a Deputy Theater Grade Command. Like the CMC, it is a "one institution, two names" entity, that combines both party and state functions.[2] [3]
It was founded on January 11, 2016, under Xi Jinping's military reforms.[4] as the successor of the Department of Defense Mobilization of the Central Staff.
In May 1984, the National People's Congress passed a new Military Service Law of the People's Republic of China. This stipulated that the responsibility of the conscription system would fall under the Ministry of Defense under the leadership of the CMC. This resulted in the establishment of the Ministry of Defense's Recruitment Office (国防部征兵办公室) to coordinate the responsibility of the Military Regions in carrying out military service under the guidance of the PLA's General Staff office.
In November 2015, the original PLA's General Staff's National Defense Mobilization Department[5] was transformed into one of the 15 functional departments of the Central Military Commission, creating the new National Defense Mobilization Department in January 2016.
On November 3, 2020, the State Council and the CMC established an inter-ministerial joint working group on the conscription system (State Council General Office Circular 2020 No. 120[6]). Organized by the Enlistment Office of the Ministry of Defense (国防部征兵办公室), it joined 14 government or party units including the Propaganda Department of the CCP Central Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Transport, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission, the Training Administration Department of the Central Military Commission, the National Defense Mobilization Department of the Central Military Commission, and the Political and Legal Committee of the Central Military Commission. This joint working group signaled the leadership's interest in modernizing the mobilization capacities of China.
The joint meetings resulted in the introduction in March 2023 of the new Reservists Law that redefined the structure of the reserve force and separated the Militia from the reserve force for the first time.[7]
The mobilization department is charged with collecting all information regarding available resources that can be mobilized in case of war, crisis, or disaster, and with devising the necessary plans and regulations to best mobilize those resources.[8] The NDMD has primary responsibility for the assignment of reservists to reserve units, and for call-up in case of mobilization
The NDMD must carry out yearly national defense mobilization capacity surveys.[9]
The Recruitment Office of the Ministry of Defense is headed by the secretary of the NDMD, linking the two institutions.
Each provincial-level entity with the exception of Beijing, Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau has been organized as a provincial military district (省军区) These Provincial Military Areas have been deprived of much of the responsibilities they used to have before 2015 (namely border defense and public order maintenance), and now are mostly used for the purposes of mobilization and resource planning, in which coordination with the provincial-level civilian authorities is of paramount importance. Each provincial district runs a Provincial Military Mobilization Bureau (省军区动员局).[10]