The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

over major issues. To the CCP, an exclusive PLA corporate
identity as a result of officer unity undermines
the foundation of the Maoist divide-and-rule method
of control, which is still useful for the Party to counter
the possibility of a powerful and politically ambitious
general. Gradually, new rules have emerged governing
the changing civil-military relations in the post-
Deng era. Apparently, these rules are inherently at
odds with symbiosis.
Conceptualizing Emerging Trends: Codifying CCP/
PLA Interaction.
PLA professionalism has been instrumental in allowing
the CCP and the PLA to institutionalize (制度
化) their relations during the post-Mao period. Institutionalization
is a rule-based control mechanism, and it
is the best weapon to curb interventionist tendencies
from both civilian and military leaders. 28 The essence
of China’s post-Mao military reform is to regulate the
PLA’s political role in the country’s political and social
system, based on a CCP/PLA understanding on
the danger of military interventionism in domestic
politics. At the same time that Party officials are officially
barred from intruding into PLA affairs, they are
especially prohibited from forging any unauthorized
contacts with PLA generals for the purpose of political
lobbying. 29 To the CCP, the significance of institutionalization
is that it can help avoid the worst of Mao’s
practice of using the gun to settle internal party disputes.
Ironically however, the best institutional safeguard
for the CCP and the PLA that creates a good
fence between them is Mao’s formula of 政治局议政,
军委议军 (the Politburo takes charge of political affairs
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