ABSTRACT
The peasant-oriented Maoist military philosophy had its origin in the special circumstances obtaining in China during the civil war: lack of sufficient weapons and training facilities, and very few opportunities to have access to major industrial and administrative centres. The Maoist philosophy laid stress on the priority of men over weapons, politics in command, guerilla tactics and a highly decentralized command and control system. The existence of militia ensured "the continuous supply to the regular army of large number of reinforcements" and this was considered "an important guarantee of victory in the war". When Chairman Mao Tse-tung speaks of the Party ruling the gun, he expresses something more than merely his notion of civil-military relations. At company level, for instance, the Political Department was represented by a political officer, while the Party structure was continued through the Party group or cell.
