What is it about?

Xi Jinping's Anti-Corruption Campaign and Chinese Civil-Military Relations

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Why is it important?

Since emerging as China’s top leader following the 18th Party Congress, Xi Jinping has moved swiftly to consolidate his formal authority as Central Military Commission chairman over the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In redressing the civil-military imbalance wrought by Dengist economic reforms, the commander-in-chief has combined institutional mechanisms with psychological intimidation to impose authoritative civilian control over the military. This paper proposes that a combination of changes to the Chinese strategic environment has contributed to Xi’s utility of the anti-corruption campaign to purge the regime’s coercive forces of its previous underpinnings, and advances that the war on military malfeasance has given rise to a new set of dynamics in civil-military relations in post-Reform China.

Perspectives

Achieving consequential changes to civil–military relations is a constant process. Given that the divestiture process that was started 20 years ago will continue into 2020, the task of enforcing oversight over the PLA is clearly a formidable, if not impossible, undertaking. Much remains to be seen if Xi Jinping will be able to translate his growing political clout to effect meaningful changes. In defying the norm of functional division instituted by Deng Xiaoping to curb the excesses of having a Maoist ‘strongman’ leader, Xi may find that letting go of power when his tenure runs out will not come easily. Still, his signature anti-corruption campaign has already begun to shape the trajectory of Chinese civil-military relations.

James Char
Nanyang Technological University

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This page is a summary of: Reclaiming the Party’s Control of the Gun: Bringing Civilian Authority Back in China’s Civil-Military Relations, Journal of Strategic Studies, August 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/01402390.2016.1219947.
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