ABSTRACT
The study of political change in China is open to any number of methodologies or foci and while most of them contribute to posthoc explanations of change, very few provide predictive capacity. In 1960 military region elites were involved in the governing of only six provinces. By 1973 they held interlocking roles in 24 of 29 provinces and in the remaining 5 there were a large number of interlocking roles involving the army at the military district level. In 1960 only one elite, Ulanfu in the strategic military region of Nei Monggol, held the top positions in the party, army and government. The fact that military regions control main force units and military districts control regional force and militia units is important. An understanding of the political commissar system helps one to understand the reason for the province level first secretaries being given the concurrent post of military district/garrison first political commissar.
