The Chinese Military: Political Demands and Control

Abstract

Using Deng Xiaoping's military reform in China as an empirical case, this article discusses how the military uses five attributes as its power base from which to make three types of political demands. The top leadership in turn can exert a certain degree of political control, eight tactics of which are discussed. The three sets of variables (power base, political demands, and political control) are seen in a state of interaction and flux. Political control can be effectively applied if the primary authority patterns that make up the political system (party-state) remain intact. The critical variables here are internal and external order, ideology, socialization, leadership, and tradition. Finally, the paper suggests that the importance of national security forces the leadership to make compromises and put the relationships among the three sets of variables into some kind of workable order.