Full Text: China´s National Defense in 2006

Political Work

The basic tasks of the PLA's political work are as follows: ensuring the success of the reform and opening-up of the country and the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, as well as promoting the socialist modernization; advancing the revolution in military affairs with Chinese features, as well as the revolutionization, modernization and regularization of the PLA; guaranteeing -- politically, ideologically and organizationally -- the nature of the people's army under the absolute leadership of the Party; upholding the PLA's socialist ethical standards, the goal of which is to cultivate military personnel with lofty ideals, high moral standards, a wide range of knowledge and a keen sense of discipline; ensuring the PLA's internal unity, unity between the PLA and the government, and unity between the PLA and the people; and ensuring the PLA's combat effectiveness and the accomplishment of the PLA's tasks.

In the long years of fighting revolutionary wars and seeking modernization, a fine tradition of democracy has taken root and a complete democratic system has developed within the PLA. The conference of servicemen's representatives at the levels of the brigade and regiment is part of this democratic system, which ensures the practice of democracy and the right of servicemen to exercise their democratic rights and participate in troop management. The conference of servicemen's representatives is mainly tasked with reviewing the work reports of their commanders, supervising their units' compliance with and implementation of regulations, orders and directives from the above, voicing servicemen's opinions, raising demands on their behalf and monitoring the use of funds in their units. Guided by Party committees and political organs at the same level, units at the levels of brigade and regiment hold annual conferences of servicemen's representatives. The representatives are selected through bottom-up democratic elections from among active servicemen and employees on the PLA payroll. Led by Party branches or grass-roots Party committees and directed by military and political chiefs, the servicemen's committee is an organization through which companies and company-level units practice democracy in political, economic and military affairs, ensure servicemen's democratic rights and conduct servicemen's activities.

The PLA conducts political work in a creative way to raise the overall performance of its officers and men. The PLA educates its officers and men in its historic mission, ideals, beliefs, fighting spirit, and the socialist concept of honor and disgrace, to raise mission awareness, foster revolutionary ideals, strengthen the will to fight, draw a clear line between right and wrong, and arouse enthusiasm for training. The PLA conducts psychological training and studies on psychological operations, and has in place a mechanism involving both political and medical institutions to provide psychological education, catharsis and health service. The CMC and the general headquarters/departments have formulated a series of policies and regulations to strengthen the building of grass-roots units. Most of the commanding organs at and above the regiment level have mechanisms to coordinate grass-roots work. In the course of implementing the Outline for Armed Forces Building at the Grass-Roots Level, a large number of advanced grass-roots units and excellent soldiers have come to the fore.