The PLA and the CCP

The PLA and the CCP

The presence of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is very noticeable pretty much wherever one wanders not only on the street but also in the media.

In the neighborhood not so far from campus I saw a big character poster saying that one enlistment in the army brings glory to the whole family. China's army, like that of the US, is now an all-volunteer army, but also as in the US the majority of recruits are people whose economic opportunities are rather limited and no one denies this. Recently passing through Beijing, I saw a smiling young recruit wearing his fatigues and backpack having his picture taken by one of his army buddies in front of the main railroad station, a famous Beijing landmark. He's probably a kid from the countryside escaping his life of boredom not unlike a counterpart in the US from a small town in Mississippi. There aren't the aggressive glitzy TV and newspaper ads for enlistment as there are in the US or huge enlistment bonuses, but due to the ubiquitous and positive presence of the military it's an obvious option. In the local paper last fall there was an article about the military registration procedure. All 18-year olds must register at special locations and have their physical fitness analyzed and categorized. They don't just go to the post office and fill out a form. Seventeen-year olds can join but they have to get an ok from relatives or guardians.

Soldiers are often seen on the street in uniform, much more than in the US even though one sees more US soldiers in uniform now than during the Vietnam war. Many small PLA detatchments and offices are located in cities and scattered close to populations, so their non-armed presence is obvious but not resented. I've detected no negativity whatsoever toward the military as a result of its role on "June 4th" (the 1989 Tiananmen shootings). Quite the contrary. There's the idea that the army defends the nation but doesn't invade or harm others. This positive attitude exists across generations. Of course, there's plenty of positive reinforcement on TV, mostly about the PLA role in the anti-Japanese war. Also, on newsstands there's a variety of newspapers and magazines about the Chinese armed forces and their military equipment and that of other countries. This is another Chinese-US similarity. Most everywhere in the world it seems there's something that gets people cranked up about high tech, sleek jet fighters, missles and navy ships. There are also military surplus stores where people can buy fatigues and military overcoats and army equipment, and one sees civilians on the street wearing such stuff about as much as in the US.

Freshmen students at the university undergo a pretty intense one-month military training program on campus and classes begin one month late for them. They get up early, run around in fatigues, march and sing patriotic songs. I don't think that they train with weapons or in the field, so this experience is probably of limited military value, but it certainly adds to patriotic fervor and solidarity with the army.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is also everywhere but less obvious to the uninitiated. Every unit of work or organization has a party secretary (书记) whose duty is to implement party policy at the local level. I have gone to art and Chinese language department dinner parties and there was the department party secretary. I was riding around on my bicycle and met some people in a neighborhood where an amateur performance of a Chinese opera was being given and before long someone introduced me to the neighborhood party secretary. The number one person in the university is not the university president but the party secretary, and he takes his lunch almost daily in the foreign student/teacher cafeteria in a separate room next to ours with a nice selection of dishes for just one person. Just as you can't be a univeristy president in the US without cozying up to and probably joining the Chamber of Commerce, you can't be a high official in the university or anywhere without at least embracing the party and probably joining it.

The link to the campus plan for implementing the 17th National Party Congress initiatives is on the university home page and on bulletin boards around campus. There are study sessions on it at all levels of the university and students study it and take exams on it. I saw their Marxism study book for the final exam. It was maybe 100 pages of nothing but questions and multiple choice answers that they will have to regurgitate. Some students are upset about having to do this at all, but others are interested in and positive about Marxism and politics but turned off by the predigested way in which it's presented. On the desk of one my students I also saw a book on how to become a party member. Join it or not, you have to deal with it. Once at a dinner party someone was chatting up a friend about Buddhism, but the friend said that he was a party member so he could only be a Buddhist in his heart.

Just like the Republicrats in the US, the CCP metes out favors to friends, keeps lids on kettles and stamps out fires. To be sure, as among politicians in the US, there are serious hard-working professional people who are trying to do their best for the most within the system. Certainly, not everyone is on the take. Just as it's easier to be an honest sincere city council member, it's easier to be a sincere and effective local CCP official. However, in either system as one tries to move up the ladder of power to affect policy, the contradictions, compromises and real sources of power quickly appear.

The amount of personal freedom in the US is great though for the most part expressed at the mall, with one's internet mouse, or in front of one's cable TV. However, the problems of the US are not so much personal as social, and US consumer capitalism is not interested in addressing them. Due to its incredible size and diversity (the latter just as great as that of the US even though China does not have the racial diversity of the US), China has to keep a lot more balls in the air and lots of people seem very willing to accept the idea that a powerful single party government that can move fast when it decides something is the best way to go. This attitude was expressed to me by a graduate student in regard to the water shortage and the dropping of the water table in the north. Yes, he recognized that it's a very serious problem but is confident it will be addressed and acted on before it becomes critical. Indeed, part of an eventual south-north waterway, equivalent to moving Lake Superior water to Oklahoma, has already been started.

With impressive economic development, personal freedoms of the kind now enjoyed in the US have grown steadily in China, so many Chinese feel they are having their cake and eating it too. For the time being, the chief butcher, baker and candlestick maker are all members of the CCP.