PARTY STILL CONTROLS THE GUN IN CHINA By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
With sharp new uniforms on order, international military manoeuvres under way, and officers offering rare glimpses of their commands, China's People's Liberation Army has been putting on a fresh face ahead of its 80th birthday today.
But the most prominent theme of a large exhibition to mark the anniversary at Beijing's military museum this month is a more traditional issue: the importance of subservience to China's ruling Communist party.
Walls are dominated by photographs of visits and instructions to the troops by Hu Jintao, Chinese president, and his forebears as party leader. Injunctions to “unswervingly obey” and “act as the loyal guard” of the party abound.
The focus on party supremacy reflects uneasiness in the Beijing leadership about quiet but persistent calls from within the 2.3m-strong PLA to be put under the formal control of the state, rather than the party.
Arthur Ding, a visiting scholar at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, says it also highlights concern that new recruits have not been exposed to as much ideological indoctrination as previous generations of soldiers.
“[For party leaders] there is a strong need to stress political education,” Mr Ding says. “They feel they have to emphasise that the party controls the gun.”
Emphasising such concerns, General Cao Gangchuan, China's defence minister, recently hit out at “factions” and “hostile forces” promoting state leadership.
Despite such insecurities, analysts say the party has remained firmly in command.
During a rare visit for journalists to an army base this week, Senior Colonel Zhang Qingjiang – commander of PLA Brigade 196, one of very few units foreigners are ever allowed to visit – said time spent on political education had fallen in recent years.
However, troops still have political education classes once a week and infantryman Zhang Zhaoliang, 22, has clearly been learning his lessons well. Asked how he would feel if war loomed, Private Zhang said: “The PLA is under the control of the Chinese Communist party – that is our fundamental nature. Whatever our superiors tell us to do, that's what we'll do.”
Analysts say the party has further shored up soldiers' loyalties with hefty pay rises and better living conditions and promised new uniforms, funded with increases to the defence budget.
New PLA recruits still get only a tiny stipend, are banned from using mobile phones or the internet and get no leave for two years. However, longer-serving soldiers and officers at Brigade 196 - one of very few PLA units foreigners are ever allowed to visit - said their conditions had improved markedly.
”In the last four years there has been big progress,” said Wang Guangbei, who has been in the ranks for four years and is paid Rmb2,300 a month. ”My pay has more than doubled.”
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