Major Implications for China’s National Security, Civil-Military Cooperation, and Inter-Agency Policy Coordination

Abstract

This chapter discusses the major implications of the findings of this study, including how the change of Chinese civil-military relations from symbiosis to quasi-institutionalization has contributed significantly to China’s national security. It also explains why this change helps to reduce the political conflict between the civilian and military authorities, drawing on the theory of civil-military relations, the scholarship on the Soviet civil-military relations, and the neo-realist theory of international politics. Finally, it shows how the peculiar evolution of the Leninist structure of civil-military relations in China hampers the integration of the military into an institutional framework of civilian oversight. The bifurcated structure of civil-military relations as a result impedes the effectiveness of inter-agency policy coordination in making decisions and managing crises regarding China’s external security.