A lot of declassified material on China’s military progress, including on its nuclear and space programmes, is being displayed for the first time. Biographies of former top soldiers are being published and foreign military attaches in Beijing are being briefed on the origin and evolution of the PLA. It has indeed been a long march for a rag-tag peasant band that has now evolved into one of the world’s most powerful militaries.

When he launched China on the path of military modernisation nearly two decades ago, Deng Xiaoping put aside Mao Zedong’s focus on the “people’s war doctrine”. Since then the PLA has steadily adapted to the imperatives of the new era. As a rising China retrains and reequips its armed forces, Beijing is reluctant to accept one central principle of modern military organisation.

Unlike in most advanced societies, it is not the state that really controls the nation’s armed forces but the Chinese Communist Party. Occasional suggestions that the armed forces must be “nationalised” are met with a ringing reaffirmation of the CCP’s “absolute leadership” over the PLA. CCP’s new emphasis on “professionalism” in the armed forces does not in any way mean a “depoliticisation” of the armed forces.

Remembering Lin

One of the surprises of the exhibition has been the inclusion of “traitor” Lin Biao in the list of “ten great marshals” who are being eulogised for founding and building the PLA. Mao Zedong had designated Lin as his successor in the 1960s. Lin attempted a coup against the great helmsman during the Cultural Revolution and died in an air crash trying to flee China in September 1971.

Lin’s name may not ring many bells around the world. But in India sections of the Naxalite movement swear by Lin, who outdid Mao in ultra-Left ideological posturing. Those in New Delhi’s security establishment familiar with China might recall Lin, who as defence minister since 1959 set the stage for the Sino-Indian military confrontation in 1962. Lin’s revolutionary ideology also involved supporting various insurgencies in India.

As Beijing displays Lin’s portrait for the first time since 1971, official commentary from

Beijing suggests that the CCP and PLA are merely being “objective” about the past.

Hu’s army

As rapid economic and social change threatens to destabilise China, Hu’s task of restructuring civil-military ties is an unenviable one. Unlike Mao and Deng who were present at the creation of the PLA and enjoyed loyal personal networks in the military, Hu is an outsider.

Hu also cannot emulate his predecessor Jiang Zemin, who gave the PLA leadership a lot of political leeway. Hu needs a more institutional basis for the projection of his leadership over the armed forces.

Since 2004 when he became the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the powerful organ of the CCP Central Committee that controls the PLA, Hu has cracked down hard on corruption within the armed forces. While his campaign has generated fear, Hu still needs his own men in the CMC.

The all-important 17th Congress of the CCP in November this year which will recast membership of the CMC might give a measure of Hu’s success in gaining full control over the armed forces. In a major speech to the PLA at the end of this month, Hu is expected to outline the kind of imprint he wants to leave on the Chinese armed forces.

Sexing up troops

The PLA has just completed a multi-million dollar redesign of its uniforms. The unimpressive baggy olive green wear that was introduced in 1997 is now giving way to western-style clothing.

“The new outfits fuse global trends with Chinese characteristics”, General Liao Xilong told Xinhua earlier this month. As its soldiers take part in larger numbers in multi-national peace-keeping operations, China decided that its troops must show some style and make a better impression.

The US $800 million make-over includes “digital camouflage” that applies pixel matrix technology to help PLA soldiers merge into various natural environments.

For normal use, the men will now get T-shaped uniforms that will broaden their shoulders and make them look taller. Female soldiers will don X-shaped uniforms that will squeeze their waistline to make them look “sassier”, the Xinhua reports. The women will also get higher heels which will now stand at 2 inches.

The writer is professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore