Recently, after a large number of Communist Party military leaders fell from power, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China issued a document announcing a nationwide political training for the military, emphasizing the “Chairman responsibility system” and “personnel cleanup.” Some analysts believe that if Xi Jinping’s political training of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) military is effective, the military will become his war machine; however, there are also opinions that even with Xi’s efforts to overhaul the military, it may still be difficult to gain true loyalty.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday (July 10) that the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China recently issued a decision on “military political training.” The report praised party leader Xi Jinping’s so-called strengthening of the military, emphasizing the implementation of the “Chairman responsibility system” and highlighting the “personnel cleanup” of senior party committees and senior cadres.
The document did not mention the names of fallen high-ranking military officials such as Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu. On June 27, both former Defense Ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe were expelled from the Party and the military on the same day, and transferred to military judicial authorities for prosecution. Li Shangfu was accused of bribery, while Wei Fenghe was not only involved in corruption but also accused of “disloyalty.”
Regarding the CCP’s nationwide political training, Yu Zongji, former Dean of the Political Warfare College of the National Defense University of Taiwan, expressed to Epoch Times on July 11 that if the CCP’s military undergoes the kind of overhaul led by Xi Jinping, the level of loyalty to Xi Jinping personally might truly overshadow considerations of professional ethics, turning the military into Xi Jinping’s war machine.
“We see that any totalitarian who is preparing for external aggression usually must obtain the absolute loyalty of the troops, which is solely personal loyalty. If it reaches this point, it will truly become Xi Jinping’s personal tool of war, capable of realizing military objectives in conjunction with his personal ambitions.”
Political commentator Zhong Yuanze expressed that when the CCP purges, sometimes it’s to make an example of one to warn many, and sometimes it’s a policy of “better to kill one thousand by mistake than let one go.” This political training is likely the latter; the CCP leader deeply feels a threat to their survival and has to resort to such measures.
He believes that no matter how Xi Jinping tries to overhaul the military, he will still struggle to gain the loyalty of military leaders.
“When leaders obviously feel a crisis and take extreme measures, hoping to completely eliminate dissent and eliminate hidden dangers, they often find that the more they investigate, the larger the problems become, the more suspected individuals there are, and the more they dig, the more they find double-dealers. When everyone feels threatened, it becomes even easier for dissent to arise. This may be the path to the CCP’s downfall.”
From June 17 to 19, the Central Military Commission of the CCP held a political work conference in Yan’an, Shaanxi. Xi Jinping repeatedly emphasized “political army building,” stating that “the control of the guns must always be in the hands of those who are loyal and reliable to the Party,” and that “corrupt elements must never be allowed to find shelter in the military.”
In the over ten years since Xi Jinping came to power, over a hundred senior military leaders within the Chinese Communist Party have fallen from grace, including six members of the Military Commission, among whom are two former Vice Chairmen of the Military Commission and two former Defense Ministers.
However, a lengthy article published by Xinhua News Agency on July 2 regarding the achievements of defense and military reforms since the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress made no mention of the anti-corruption situation.
Su Ziyun, Director of the Institute of Strategy and Resources at the Taiwan Institute for National Defense Security, expressed to Epoch Times on July 5 that the Fourth Plenum of the 20th Party Congress will convene, and the official report will involve a review of the so-called military reform. However, it will definitely deliberately avoid the anti-corruption aspects to prevent morale from being affected. Especially given that the last two Defense Ministers were ousted due to corruption, it would not look good at the Fourth Plenum, so the state media is deliberately avoiding the topic.