China's Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced a new system of military ranks for PLA officers where the Military rank determines the officer's ranking, salary and emoluments, perquisites, etc. MND spokesman Wu Qian said it is a system of “three levels of ten titles”. General-level officers are divided into Admirals, Lieutenant Generals, and Major Generals; Colonel-level officers are divided into Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, and Majors; Lieutenant-level officers are divided into Captains, Lieutenants, and Second Lieutenants. He clarified that the new officer ranking system mainly includes 3 aspects: rank, post position hierarchy and treatment level. The post position hierarchy regulates the order of promotion and appointment of officers and leadership and command relations. The level of treatment entails the basic living conditions of officers. He said that officer treatment level is based on the rank level, and there are 19 such levels. Wu also spoke about the linkage of educational degrees with military ranks.

(Comment: This is a major change. It appears that consequent to this change in the PLA ranking system, the difference in Grade and Military rank will not exist.)