From Mao to now: why China’s Communist Party is intent on control over the military

Beijing’s anti-corruption clean-up of the military reflects a historic commitment to party control, ensuring the armed forces strictly serve party goals In December 1929, then Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong led a pivotal meeting in Gutian, Fujian province. The next two decades witnessed some of the defining moments leading up to the Communist victory of 1949, including the Long March, the consolidation of Mao’s leadership and the renaming of the armed forces as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In 1938, as the party faced a turning point following the departure of co-founder and Mao’s revolutionary rival Zhang Guotao, Mao wrote: “Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” Nearly a century on, those principles still serve as the political bedrock of the party’s control over the military.

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