ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the changes in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) political role, especially its role in Chao Tzu-yang's eventual succession. Secretaries of provincial Party committees are concurrently first political commissars of provincial military districts. Under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee is a Military Commission that is responsible for commanding the PLA, and the Military Commission's General Political Department is in charge of the political work in the PLA. The political conflicts between civil and military cadres within the Party's Central Committee are sometimes manifested in the form of factional struggles. The Marxist-Leninist Party-building theories and the pattern of Communist rule have shaped the original form of the PLA's political role, that is, the Party's army which is built for political purposes. The traditional Chinese political culture which emphasizes loyalty to the ruler is still deep-rooted. The CCP's Thirteenth National Congress, the evolution of the PLA's political role has more or less followed the past pattern.
