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

At the policy level, while the Politburo is theoretically
the ultimate forum for approving key military
decisions, it is the PLA that creates policy initiatives
for policies. This shows the Party’s respect for professional
inputs. One example of this is that, since the
1950s, the Party has never interfered with PLA efforts
to formulate and revise national defense strategies.
On issues of national security that involve both civilian
and military interests, the Politburo incorporates
views from both sides. Key PLA leaders participate in
these meetings and exchange views with representatives
from state agencies. It is a foregone conclusion
that most military matters submitted to the Politburo
will be approved automatically because the green light
has already been given by the Party boss at a CMC forum.
38 This paves the way for the CMC to exercise decisionmaking
power in a highly autonomous manner.
At the administrative and operational levels, the PLA
has gained the most autonomy, including personnel
nomination and promotion, transfer, and punishment
of senior officers; allocation of the military budget to
the services; research of new weapons systems; reviews
of defense strategies; salary and social welfare
matters; and so on. Additionally, the PLA’s legal and
discipline authorities assume full autonomy in handling
their own criminal and other related cases. None
of these, however, can be compared with the effect of
the passage of Party and military elders who took it for
granted to move across the civilian/military boundaries.
Now, an unprecedented level of autonomy in
managing its own affairs has presented the PLA with
a decreased need and will to get involved in civilian
politics.
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