ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the changing role of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Chinese politics. It analyzes the command structure of the PLA, its political role during various periods, Deng Xiaoping's efforts to reduce military involvement in politics, the military's resistance to Deng's agenda, and its reentry into the factional struggle in 1989. In terms of organization, the highest military decision-making body is the Party's Central Military Commission, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. After the 1987 Thirteenth Party Congress, the entire military command system underwent a dramatic reshuffling. The first political commissars of the military districts usually are the senior provincial Party secretaries. In 1955, when Defense Minister Peng Dehuai initiated a program to modernize the army, he intended to reduce substantially the army's role in production and concentrate on military training. The rapid rise of the military's power, especially that of the regional commanders, began to threaten the Beijing authorities.
