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On April 1st, 1984, the 38th Army became the first PLA army converted into a GA structure, a full year ahead of the next army, so it had time for the mechanized concept to shake out. The 38th was further reformed as the PLA's first Mechanized Group Army in July 1985, with the 39th GA converted in the following year. Throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s they were the PLA's only mechanized units. While over a million personnel were cut from the PLA in 1984 and all its reminding armies were reorganized into GA by taking additional service arms, they were not mechanized.

Since the late 1990s, the main PLA war doctrine has changed to War Zone Campaign (WZC) in which war will take place in a “local war under high tech conditions.” Under the WZC, the PLA will continue their tradition of active defense and taking the fight to the border in a rapid manner during a national emergency before a political settlement can be reached. The WZC requires a high tech, elite, rapid reaction force to fulfill its operational objectives, and the mechanization of infantry seems to, by nature, fit into many of the WZC's requirements. Like the two previous doctrines, the PLA only converted a limited number of formations to fulfill the needed role; since 1996 the PLA has converted six Infantry Brigades and four Infantry Divisions into Mechanized Infantry Divisions, and two into Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Divisions to deal with the local crisis requirement as Rapid Reaction Units with their neighbors, instead of one large GA for the entire nation. However, a majority of PLA infantry still have to rely on trucks for mobility and continue to fight on foot.

In the post Cold War world, the PLA no longer focuses their war planning on both super powers, but rather on large number of smaller neighbors in possible political crisis situations. The list of those newly converted mechanized units was compiled by Andrew KC, and shows increased activity since 1997. Dennis Blasko, Military Balance, Jane's, and the Directory of PLA Personalities also have similar lists and they differ only in small details.

1983: 112th Division (38th GA)
1984: 116th Division (30th GA)
Units in conversion: 4th, 61st, 149th, 36th Division

1997: 127th Division
2000: 58th Brigade
2002: 123rd Division, 88th Division, 235th, 118th Brigades
2003: 139th, 188th and 190th brigades

It is by no coincidence that these Mechanized units are evenly spread out all over China and have the Rapid Reaction Unit designation to deal with local crises as called for by the new WZC doctrine. Judging from internet photos, PLA Daily news articles and Central China Television reports, those units are well equipped by Chinese standards, and their field exercises are frequently reported on by official media such as PLA Daily. Recently a field exercise of the 127th Light Mobile Mechanized Infantry Division was open to over 60 military observers from other nations. There is no question the Mechanized Infantry are better than most of the PLA infantry units, which still make up 80% of total strength, but it remains to be seen how well they perform in a real shootout. Even with the latest conversion, the PLA is still lacking power projection capability into an adversary's territory. For that capability the PLA will need to conduct deeper reforms of its logistic system .