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China Civil-Military Relations
Lines between civilian and military leadership and institutions
in China are indistinct. All high-ranking military leaders have
high-level party positions, and many high-ranking party officials
have some military experience. When military leaders participate in
national policy making, therefore, it is not clear whether their
positions reflect PLA corporate interests or the interests of
groups that cut across institutional lines. In general, in times
where there was national leadership consensus on national policy,
such as in the 1950s, the PLA was politically quiescent. Once the
PLA was drawn into civilian politics during the Cultural
Revolution, the military became divided along the lines of civilian
factions. As long as the national leadership remained divided on a
number of policy issues, the PLA, fearing factional struggles and
political instability, was reluctant to leave the political scene.
When Deng Xiaoping was rehabilitated in 1977, however, the stage
was set for the withdrawal of the military from politics and a
partial return to the PLA's previous political passivity.
Data as of July 1987
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