China's Navy Still Puts the Communist Party Before Competence

PO1 Tony Holland Unfortunately! Politics above Sanity. Kind of Like the Trump Administration.

"Later this month, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy will mark its seventy-third anniversary. Created to deliver China’s communists their coveted dominion rather than to harness national security, the People's Republic of China’s military structure has, since its inception, been geared towards keeping the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) in power, whatever the cost. Even its oath of allegiance is not to the country, constitution, or people, but the party. Successive Chinese leaders have thus pandered to the PLA’s political influence, affording it significant autonomy in return.

The party is deeply embedded into the military hierarchy, and its tentacles infiltrate it at all levels. Despite most military officers themselves being CPC cadres, political commissars are still present at all levels. Decisions to hold major drills, hand out promotions, or give soldiers university educations are at the party’s behest. And like in all Chinese industries, loyalty and subservience to the party are necessary to succeed materially and politically. Anyone thinking for oneself in professional military affairs is likely to be marked as a potential troublemaker worthy of disposal.

To ensure that it never discards its raison d’etre of safeguarding the party, the PLA is required to engage in constant political work. This means that 30 to 40 percent of an officer’s career is spent on non-military tasks, such as being “educated” in party propaganda, singing patriotic songs, and conducting seminars on Maoist theory. It is also common for senior officers to exert significant time and energy attempting to get elected to the national congress.

To external eyes, it seems obvious that the Chinese military’s political obsession has stunted its development. The PLA may be expanding and modernizing, but it remains rigid, hierarchical, and cumbersome.

The challenges posed by these hierarchical hang-ups are most evident in a high-tech force such as the PLA Navy, which must be agile, independent, and decisive to win. Aside from the rigidity of all arms of the PLA, its naval command and control system is especially regressive. The dual command system is highly unusual, with command and control shared equally between captains and political commissars. The Soviets, who initially spearheaded the idea, realized the flaws in the system. By 1942, the Red Army had abolished it in favor of a structure in which the commissar was a junior adviser to the ship’s captain. Meanwhile, China has backpedaled to pre-World War II levels of Stalinist hubris."...