People's Liberation Army General Staff Department
The People's Liberation Army General Staff Department (), preceded by the Chief and Deputy Chiefs of the General Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Committee of the Central People's Government (1949–1954) without a department, was the command organ and headquarters for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China. Its duties included PLA Operations Command, Recruitment, Mobilization, Formation, Training and Administration. The PLA General Staff Headquarters was located in Beijing and its last commander was General Fang Fenghui. The General Staff was under the absolute leadership of the Central Military Commission  and (especially during the long Maoist era) under the political supervision of the PLA General Political Department. During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, commonly referred to as "the 2nd Bureau" (the PLA adopted the numbering system of most continental European armies for staff bureaus) was active in funding, arming and training dozens of Asian, African and Latin American militant groups and liberation movements; especially in the case of Africa, the Intelligence Bureau "supplied, at one time or another, nearly all of the various African liberation movements with arms, money, food and medicines". Among  those who received military training were Pol Pot (leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia) and Abimael Guzmán (leader of the Shining Path in Peru). The General Staff was disbanded as part of the January 2016 military reform and its operations were consolidated into the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission. List of Chiefs of the General Staff. Note: From the Proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and until the creation of the General Staff Department in 1954, the duties of the Chief of the General Staff were performed by General (later Marshal) Xu  Xiangqian, who held the title Chief of the General Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Committee of the Central People's Government. "For the new office, see Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission."