SIGNS POINT TO YES: Has Xi Fully Consolidated His Power Over the Military?
Recently, multiple signs have shown that Chinese President Xi Jinping, who also holds the positions of chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) — the highest body that controls China’s military — and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, has further consolidated his power over Chinese military.
On December 27, 2017, the CCP Central Committee announced that the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (PAP), which had been overseen by both the State Council and the CMC since 1982, would be put under the command of the CMC alone from January 1, 2018.
The PAP is currently responsible for domestic stability, civilian policing, border defense, fire rescue, and supporting the military during wartime. From 1966 to 1982 — during the period of China’s Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong — the original PAP was solely controlled by the then-CMC. In 1982 — after Deng Xiaoping issued the “opening up and reform” policy — the Chinese authorities decided to reshuffle the military and transfer part of the power of controlling the paramilitary functions to the government. That was how the current PAP was formally established.
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Besides centralizing his control over China’s 660,000-strong PAP, Xi has also appointed a series of military officials to fill in the positions in local provinces in recent weeks.
It has been a tradition for top military officials to also take senior positions in provincial standing committees — the highest decision-making body at the provincial level. However, since Xi launched sweeping military reforms, those positions that used to be saved for military officials had remained unfilled for a whole year, from 2016 to 2017.
Most of these empty positions — in more than 16 provinces across the country — have been suddenly filled in recent weeks, according to the Beijing Daily (Xinjing Bao).
If Xi wanted to be China’s first Leader for Life since Mao, there’s really nothing different he’d have done over the last few years.