Like the CMC, it is a "one institution, two names" entity, that combines both party and state functions.

This stipulated that the responsibility of the conscription system would fall under the Ministry of Defense under the leadership of the CMC.

This joint working group signaled the leadership's interest in modernizing the mobilization capacities of China.

[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)[a] 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.