Bektas Baktybayev
China has the third strongest military and the largest military in terms of military manpower in the world. That is why it would be interesting to analyze the current reforms aimed to structurally reorganize Chinese military and their effects to civil-military relations. Starting in late 2015, China began to implement plans for structural military reorganization because of needs to increase Chinese military power. Those plans had been announced at the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2013, with the goal of fully implementing the reforms in military sector. One of these reforms were related to Civil-military relations. The topic of these reforms was in the following way: Enhance management of civilian-military integration.
Since the early 2000s, Chinese reformers have sought to achieve synergies by integrating the defense and commercial industrial bases more tightly. This would benefit the PLA, which would have greater access to civilian S&T advances, as well as the civilian economy, which would be able to incorporate dual-use technology initially developed for military purposes. However, it was difficult to achieve synergy due to the poor coordination between the military and civilian research communities.
The topic of the poorly developed civil-military integration (CMI) had became central theme of the Xi Jinping–era reforms which resulted in aforementioned structural military reorganization. The Third Plenum decision called for promoting joint military and civilian development, perfecting defense innovation systems, and promoting entrance of private civilian firms into the defense sector. In March 2016, Xi again called for “coordinated, balanced, and compatible” development of civilian and military resources, noting that this had previously been hindered by a lack of high-level coordination.
Professional Military Education (PME) is another important topic related to civil-military relations in Chinese military reforms. There was a need to introduce changes to PME in China due to the weaknesses in officer education and training. According to the Bruneau and Tollefson (2008) the ideal purpose of PME is to empower the military to implement policy and at the same time discourage military leaders from seeking to make policy. In democracies such as USA education is particularly vital as a conduit of a professional military ethos. The example of USA is important because Chinese military reforms in PLA (People’s Liberation Army) is moving toward a command structure more closely resembling the U.S. military.
The US military is known as a fully professional army. China is also going to professionalize its army. According to President Xi the plan will involve China transforming its Soviet-era military structures into a more professional US-style force, with integrated commands and a centralized headquarters, which can be seen from cutting of 300,000 personnel from its 2.3m-strong military force from the PLA. It means that China wants to establish objective civilian control. Huntington argues that objective civilian control is obtained through maximum professionalization of the officer corps.
To conclude, China is going to professionalize its military and to improve civil-military relations. China is following the US example of PME and professional army in order to achieve such aim.
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China has the third strongest military and the largest military in terms of military manpower in the world. That is why it would be interesting to analyze the current reforms aimed to structurally reorganize Chinese military and their effects to civil-military relations. Starting in late 2015, China began to implement plans for structural military reorganization because of needs to increase Chinese military power. Those plans had been announced at the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2013, with the goal of fully implementing the reforms in military sector. One of these reforms were related to Civil-military relations. The topic of these reforms was in the following way: Enhance management of civilian-military integration.
Since the early 2000s, Chinese reformers have sought to achieve synergies by integrating the defense and commercial industrial bases more tightly. This would benefit the PLA, which would have greater access to civilian S&T advances, as well as the civilian economy, which would be able to incorporate dual-use technology initially developed for military purposes. However, it was difficult to achieve synergy due to the poor coordination between the military and civilian research communities.
The topic of the poorly developed civil-military integration (CMI) had became central theme of the Xi Jinping–era reforms which resulted in aforementioned structural military reorganization. The Third Plenum decision called for promoting joint military and civilian development, perfecting defense innovation systems, and promoting entrance of private civilian firms into the defense sector. In March 2016, Xi again called for “coordinated, balanced, and compatible” development of civilian and military resources, noting that this had previously been hindered by a lack of high-level coordination.
Professional Military Education (PME) is another important topic related to civil-military relations in Chinese military reforms. There was a need to introduce changes to PME in China due to the weaknesses in officer education and training. According to the Bruneau and Tollefson (2008) the ideal purpose of PME is to empower the military to implement policy and at the same time discourage military leaders from seeking to make policy. In democracies such as USA education is particularly vital as a conduit of a professional military ethos. The example of USA is important because Chinese military reforms in PLA (People’s Liberation Army) is moving toward a command structure more closely resembling the U.S. military.
The US military is known as a fully professional army. China is also going to professionalize its army. According to President Xi the plan will involve China transforming its Soviet-era military structures into a more professional US-style force, with integrated commands and a centralized headquarters, which can be seen from cutting of 300,000 personnel from its 2.3m-strong military force from the PLA. It means that China wants to establish objective civilian control. Huntington argues that objective civilian control is obtained through maximum professionalization of the officer corps.
To conclude, China is going to professionalize its military and to improve civil-military relations. China is following the US example of PME and professional army in order to achieve such aim.
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References:
Bruneau, Thomas C., and Scott D. Tollefson. 2008. Who Guards the Guardians and How: Democratic Civil-Military Relations. University of Texas Press.
Huntington, Samuel P. 1957. The Soldier and the State the Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Links:
http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/president-xis-military-reforms-in-china-increase-professionalism-in-the-forces-or-his-own-power/
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