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

HU JINTAO AND CHINA’S CHANGING
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS
Hu Jintao’s authority construction since the 16th
Congress has been very impressive and testified to
many novel developments in the country’s social-political
transformation in general and its civil-military
relations in particular. From his example, it can be
seen that Hu now exerts the principle civilian control
over the PLA. Specifically, through both his rise to
power and time in office, the emerging trends of civilmilitary
relations outlined above can be seen.
Hu Jintao has solidified his position as the top
leader in charge of China’s military. In a report on the
Wenchuan Earthquake rescue operations by the General
Engineering Corps of the Second Artillery in June
2008, it was advocated that the whole PLA should
work hard to enhance Hu’s power of appealing (感
召力) and soldiers’ centripetal force (power) toward
him (向心力). This new vocabulary was immediately
captured by the PLA’s General Political Affairs Department
(GPAD). It sent out a directive in the same
month, asking all PLA units to embrace the spirit of
these two powers of Hu’s. 39 Use of this kind of language
of worship has not been seen for quite some
time, certainly not in the Jiang era, and was not even
used to praise Deng. Another concrete measure to test
the PLA’s stance toward Hu is the quickness of PLA
top commanders to voice their personal support to his
political initiatives. Immediately after Hu put forward
his New Deal on harmonious society and scientific
development in the CMC annual meeting in December
2005, the whole PLA was mobilized to study the
call. All PLA headquarters quickly convened high
level meetings to formulate measures of implementa-
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