ABSTRACT
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the ruling political party of China. One of the keys to its rule of the Chinese state is its grip on military power and control of national security decision-making. The Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has long been under CCP control, ever since it was founded in 1927. The PLA’s role can be seen in civil wars, domestic power politics and national defense against external threat, as well as in maintaining domestic social stability. The present Chinese foreign and security policymaking suffers from inefficiency, and a lack both of coordination and information sharing, and of accountability amongst decision-makers. Decision-making power on major foreign policy and national security issues today is still centralized at the top of the Party–state system, and the multi-member Politburo and its Standing Committee has the ultimate decision power over all major issues of internal and external affairs in the power structure.
