China’s Updated National Defense Law: Going for Broke
Publication: China Brief Volume: 21 Issue: 4
February 26, 2021 02:53 PM
Age: 3 weeks
Image: Chinese President, CMC Chairman and CCP Secretary General Xi Jinping greets members of the People’s Liberation Army. (Image source: Xinhua)
Introduction
On January 1, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) put into effect new revisions to its National Defense Law (henceforth, “Law”) (中华人民共和国国防法 zhonghua renmin gonghe guo guofang fa) (Xinhua, December 26, 2020; South China Morning Post, January 3).
[1] This is the first update since 2009. Although the revisions might seem ordinary at first glance, they have important implications for the future of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which it is worth noting answers to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), not the state. There has been tension throughout the PRC’s history surrounding the subordination of the armed forces relative to the Party, the state a
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Amendments to China s National Defense Law, effective the first of this year, transfer powers from civilian to military officials.
The changes signal the growing clout of the People s Liberation Army inside the Communist Party and highlight the militarization of the country s external relations. The new law, most significantly, contemplates the mass mobilization of society, presumably for war.
The amendments reduce the role of the central government s State Council in making military policy, transferring powers to the Communist Party s Central Military Commission (CMC). Specifically, the State Council will no longer supervise the mobilization of the People s Liberation Army.
EDITORIAL: Xi’s worrisome new powers
Two recent developments relating to the reform of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could have far-reaching implications, not just for Taiwan, but the entire world.
First, on Friday last week, revisions to China’s National Defense Law came into effect that increase the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) hold over the military.
The amendments, ratified by the National People’s Congress on Dec. 26 last year, effectively neuter the role of China’s State Council the country’s chief administrative authority in formulating military policy, and places decisionmaking powers under the sole purview of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which is chaired by “paramount leader” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).