With a series of edicts, speeches and martial ceremonies, President Xi Jinping has over the past six months unveiled China’s biggest military overhaul since the aftermath of the Korean War.

The plan seeks to transform the 2.3-million-member People’s Liberation Army, which features 21st-century hardware but an outdated, Soviet-inspired command structure, into a fighting force capable of winning a modern war. China is shifting from a “large country to a large and powerful one,” Xi explained in November. The restructuring will be a major focus of the country’s new defense budget, which will be announced Saturday as the annual National People’s Congress gets under way in Beijing.

“A lot of countries do military reforms, but they are rarely as tectonic as what we are seeing in China,” said Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington who specializes in military capabilities. “Any single one of these elements constitutes a bureaucratic overhaul of the first order.”

Here are the key elements of Xi’s plan:

Fewer Singers, More Sailors

The first piece of the overhaul — announced by Xi during a grand military parade through Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 — calls for eliminating 300,000 PLA personnel by 2017. While Xi presented the cutbacks as proof of China’s commitment to peace, they’ll largely target non-combat personnel and should make the country’s forces more focused and efficient.

Out are military cooks, hospital workers, journalists and some 10,000 members of the PLA’s famed troops of singers and dancers. Even so, China’s military will remain by far the world’s largest, with more than 600,000 more active service members than the U.S., according to estimates by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The reorganization will also chip away at the army’s dominance as modern mechanized warfare requires far fewer conventional troops. China needs more pilots, sailors, commandos and drone operators to achieve ambitions of projecting force farther afield.

Who’s the Boss?

Advanced military actions such as intercepting rival aircraft, carrying out drone strikes and using special forces to extract hostages, demand the sort of close collaboration China’s army-centric military has lacked. Xi intends to fix that by reorganizing the armed forces into five branches under a joint-command structure modeled after that of the U.S.

In addition to the existing army, PLA Air Force and PLA Navy, a new Rocket Force will be responsible for China’s nuclear arsenal and conventional missiles while a Strategic Support Force will oversee cyberwarfare and protect China’s financial system from attack.

Redrawing the Map

As part of the move toward a unified command, China consolidated its seven military regions into five “Theater Commands” or “Battle Zones,” with each service reporting to a single commander, a move first reported by Bloomberg News in September. How these zones will function remains unclear.

“A lot of energy will be spent figuring out who commands who; who supports who; and most importantly who controls which budgets?” said Felix Chang, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

Many will be watching to see how far beyond China’s borders the new zones reach and how the revamped military map will shape PLA activities in regional hotspots such as the South China Sea.

Consolidating Power

Xi Jinping confers military flags on the five newly-established theater commands of the PLA.

Photographer: Li Gang/Xinhua via Getty Images

Xi is also centralizing his authority by breaking up the military’s massive, back-office bureaucracy. Four existing general departments will be divided into 15 smaller units responsible for everything from training and logistics to punishing corrupt officers and ensuring soldiers get sufficient education in Marxist ideology. They’ll all report directly to the Central Military Commission, a Communist Party body led by Xi.

“It may be that this is a means for Xi to increase his support within the PLA, as all these new general officer billets will be filled with his people,” said Cheng, of the Heritage Foundation.

Success of the reform plan will depend heavily on Xi’s capacity to overcome entrenched interests in the PLA, which has long enjoyed a privileged status as the guarantor of Communist Party rule. In a sign of the army’s continued influence, all five of the commanders chosen for the new battle zones hail from the ground forces.

One thing Xi has made clear: he has no plans to transfer control over the PLA to the government from the party, something foreign military experts say is needed to professionalize the services.

--With assistance from Mira Rojanasakul, Ting Shi and Keith Zhai.

Syrian civilians and activists wave pre-Baath Syrian flags, now used by the Syrian opposition, during an anti-regime demonstration in the rebel-controlled side of Aleppo, on March 4, 2016. For the first time in years, hundreds of Syrians across the country took advantage of a nearly week-long ceasefire to resume anti-government protests under the slogan "The Revolution Continues." (Photo: KARAM AL-MASRI, AFP/Getty Images)

Follow Iyad El-Baghdadi ‎@iyad_elbaghdadi Total number of protests in Syria today: 104. One hundred and four. https://twitter.com/waelwanne/status/705805991477121024 … 12:25 PM - 4 Mar 2016 9191 Retweets 4545 likes Total number of protests in Syria today: 104. One hundred and four. https://twitter.com/waelwanne/status/705805991477121024 … 12:25 PM - 4 Mar 2016 9191 Retweets 4545 likes

The Syrian opposition called the demonstrations to express public support for their demands, according to Syria analyst Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute, who focuses on Syrian opposition groups.

The High Negotiating Committee, a coalition of Syrian groups convened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, issued a statement listing seven goals. They call for the removal of theAssad regime from power, an end to all sieges, provision of adequate humanitarian aid, the release of detainees and the expulsion of Iranian and Shiite sectarian militia, according to a translation by Lister.

The rebel coalition also wants refugees and displaced people to be allowed to return to their communities and the withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria, Lister said on Twitter.

Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the demonstrations show that after years of war and hardship, many in rebel-held areas of Syria still support the opposition against Assad. "The problem is many people in Assad-controlled areas feel he's the lesser of two evils," Tabler said.

As many as 470,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war, and more than half the nation's pre-war population of 22 million people has been displaced, contributing to a refugee crisis in Europe.

The fighting began in February 2011, when Assad's security forces quashed peaceful protests challenging his rule. Assad's forces have been bolstered by Russia, and Iran, which mobilized Shiite militia from across the region. The opposition has been backed by the Arab monarchies of Persian Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and by Turkey, Jordan and the United States.

Despite daily reports of airstrikes and shelling, the cease-fire that went into effect Saturday has led to a marked reduction in violence, says Matt McInnis of the American Enterprise Institute. The truce is officially termed a "cessation of hostilities" because none of the parties agreed to stop attacking terrorist groups the Islamic State or al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusrah Front, and those groups are not party to the agreement.

Syrian and Russian forces have launched occasional attacks against groups they claim are Islamic State or Nusrah, but those have generally been "softening up operations" designed to prevent the opposition from regrouping and to keep it off balance, McInnis said.

The protests show that the opposition, which has been badly battered by Syria's Russian-backed forces, still holds to its demands from the beginning of the civil war but wants a political solution rather than to focus on the conflict, McInnis said.

"It's going to be tough to compromise given the war crimes Assad has committed against them," he said. "These protests show these people are looking for something and still dealing with outside backers, the Saudis, Qataris and Turks, who are not willing to accept Assad staying."

A similar message was delivered to Russian President Vladimir Putin by European leaders in a group phone call Friday.

According to a statement released by the British Foreign Office, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi spoke by phone with Putin Friday.

"The aim of the call was to give a clear, coordinated message on the importance of Russia and the Assad regime respecting the fragile truce to provide space for productive peace talks, due to resume in Geneva next week, and to allow humanitarian access to besieged Syrian towns," the statement said.

Cameron stressed that the solution to Syria's crisis is "a transition away from Assad to a government that included moderate Sunnis," to a united Syria in peace, it said. Putin said Russia is committed to respecting the truce and agreed to support U.N. envoy Steffan de Mistura, who is leading the negotiations.

Unrelated protests also took place in Iraq on Friday.

Supporters of influential clerik Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in several cities, including the capital Baghdad to protest stalled efforts to ease Iraq’s economic crisis and tackle corruption in the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal authorities rounded up 12 people in five states on Thursday, bringing to 19 the number of defendants facing conspiracy, assault and threats charges in a 2014 armed standoff over grazing cattle on U.S. land near renegade cattleman Cliven Bundy's ranch in southern Nevada.

Arrests of alleged co-conspirators in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma and New Hampshire came after a federal grand jury in Las Vegas expanded an indictment already filed against Bundy. It also names two adult Bundy sons and five other men already in federal custody following the end of a nearly six-week armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Court documents accuse the men of leading more than 200 followers into an armed confrontation that forced federal Bureau of Land Management agents and contract cowboys to abandon an effort to corral and remove Bundy cattle from federal lands where he was accused of letting them graze for decades without paying federal fees.

At the family home in Bunkerville, Nevada, Cliven Bundy's wife, Carol, acknowledged that her husband and sons Ammon, Ryan, Melvin and David Bundy were in federal custody. The mother of 14 adult children pleaded for prayer and echoed her husband's call to fight government overreach.

"I truly believe this is showing the federal government thinks they have unlimited power over we the people," Carol Bundy told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview. "What kind of government do we have?"

"This is going to be won in the court of public opinion," she added. "When we the people make a stand, that's when we'll win."

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FILE - In this April 16, 2014 file photo, Jerry DeLemus, of Rochester, N.H., sits with a group of se …

Bundy supporters Ryan Payne of Montana, Peter Santilli Jr. of Cincinnati, and Brian Cavalier and Blaine Cooper, both of Arizona, were also already in custody. They were arrested Jan. 26 during the occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon.

The arrests in the Nevada case came the same day U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in Portland, Oregon, that additional charges would be filed "very soon" in the 41-day standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. She didn't provide specifics.

The nine-count indictment in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas is similar to one filed Feb. 11, the day after Cliven Bundy was arrested as he arrived in Portland to visit Ammon and Ryan Bundy in jail.

The brothers were among 16 defendants who pleaded not guilty last week to federal conspiracy charges. A total of 25 people are charged in the occupation. The occupiers had said they wanted the U.S. government to relinquish public lands to locals and free two Oregon ranchers who they say were wrongly imprisoned for setting fires.

In an interview from the Portland, Oregon, jail where Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, has been lodged since his arrest, he told The Oregonian he's not ashamed of what he and others did in seizing the refuge.

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New Hampshire state Rep. Susan DeLemus, right, leaves the Federal Courthouse with state Rep. John Bu …

"It's the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life," Ammon Bundy said of being in jail. "But I don't regret what we did because I knew it was right."

The younger Bundy said as he sees it, they went into a public building and carried out a demonstration.

In the Nevada armed showdown case, charges include conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States; threatening a federal law enforcement officer; obstruction of justice; attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer; and several firearms charges.

The indictment alleges co-defendants recruited, trained and provided support to armed men and other Bundy followers during a dispute over more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees and penalties. Officials say the fees still haven't been paid.

It identifies Cliven Bundy as the leader and beneficiary of the conspiracy, and Ammon and Ryan Bundy as leaders and organizers of about 200 gunmen and followers.

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New Hampshire state Rep. Susan DeLemus, leaves the Federal Courthouse after attending a hearing for …

The result: A picket line of self-styled Bundy militia perched on a high Interstate 15 bridge, pointing military-style AR-15 and AK-47 weapons down at BLM agents and cowboys herding cattle up a ravine to a corral. Dozens of woman and children were in the possible crossfire.

The federal officials backed down, and they released about 400 cows that had been rounded up.

Documents submitted following the Thursday arrest of Gerald "Jerry" DeLemus in Rochester, New Hampshire, said that DeLemus "organized and led armed patrols and security checkpoints" for several following weeks around the Bundy ranch in southern Nevada.

DeLemus was running for Strafford County sheriff in New Hampshire when he was arrested. He appeared in custody in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, for a detention hearing that was postponed until Monday. His wife, Republican state Rep. Susan DeLemus, said she planned to hire a lawyer for his defense.

Federal officials identified others arrested Thursday as: Blaine Cooper of Humboldt, Arizona; Eric J. Parker and Steven A. Stewart, both of Hailey, Idaho; O. Scott Drexler of Challis, Idaho; Richard R. Lovelien of Westville, Oklahoma; Todd C. Engel of Boundary County, Idaho; Gregory P. Burleson of Phoenix; Joseph D. O'Shaughnessy of Cottonwood, Arizona; and Micah L. McGuire and Jason D. Woods both of Chandler, Arizona.

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Tuohy reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli forces demolished dozens of structures including a school in the northern West Bank this week, leaving 10 families homeless, the UN said on Friday.

The demolitions took place on Wednesday in the village of Khirbet Tana, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

In total, 41 structures were destroyed, displacing 36 Palestinians including 11 children, the UN's humanitarian body said in a statement.

COGAT, the defence ministry body responsible for coordinating Israeli government activity in the Palestinian territories, put the number of structures at 20.

It said demolition orders were issued in advance.

The army regularly destroys homes it says have been built without permission from the Israeli authorities.

Palestinians and their supporters say it is extremely difficult for them to obtain permits in the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control, known as Area C, which accounts for about 60 percent of the territory.

Last week the European Union hit out at Israeli authorities after they demolished a school funded by the French government.

Nickolay Mladenov, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said last month the number of such demolitions has tripled on average since the start of the year.

"Since the beginning of 2016, Israel has demolished, on average, 29 Palestinian-owned structures per week, three times the weekly average for 2015," he said.

Paris (AFP) - United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said Friday the Syrian people, not foreigners, should decide the fate of their President Bashar al-Assad.

"Can't we leave the Syrians to actually decide on that? Why should we be saying in advance what the Syrians should say, as long as they have the freedom and the opportunity of saying so?" de Mistura told France 24 TV.

"We say that it is supposed to be a solution Syrian-led, Syrian-owned," he added.

De Mistura said he remained optimistic about the ceasefire that came into force last weekend, despite continued breaches.

"Yesterday, there were four people killed. Very sad," he said.

"But do you know how many were dying just two weeks ago? Up to 120 per day. An average of between 60 and 80 every day.

"How many people were being reached by humanitarian aid in the 18 besieged areas? Zero. What happened in the last 10 days? Well, 242 truck-loads of humanitarian aid reaching seven of those areas."

He said 115,000 people had now received aid, but accepted this was still "not enough".

He refused to comment on the impact of Russian air strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"I'm a mediator, I am a UN official, so I will not make a judgement. I think history will judge all of this.

"There is certainly a case in saying that once the Russians got involved militarily, I want to believe that they also felt… that when you get involved you (have to) become part of the solution."