ABSTRACT
The central theme of the Political Report delivered by Chou at the Tenth Party Congress in August 1973 was "unity". He endeavoured to convey this message by clothing it in elegant dialectics and revolutionary catchwords. Chiang Huang's article in the Red Flag made a strong plea for constantly strengthening the revolutionary unity between new and old cadres so as to strengthen centralized Party leadership. In order to fill the vacuum in the army leadership at the Centre, it was also deemed prudent to rehabilitate experienced military officers, particularly those who had either been disgraced during the Cultural Revolution or suffered at the hands of Lin Piao. Despite the sharp reduction in military representation, People's Liberation Army officers remained a sizable group within the Tenth Central Committee and practically all the military leaders who occupied key military positions in China either at the centre or in the regions were included in the Central Committee.
