The Party Controls the Gun, but How? Institutionalization as a Trend in Chinese Civil-Military Relations

Katherine V. Fleming, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

Originally characterized by a tightly intertwined relationship based in informal manners of control, the relationship between the Chinese army, party, and state has evolved over the past few decades. Instigated by the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, which changed Chinese politics, economics, and society, the party and the army’s relationship is no longer based in the "interlocking directorate," which characterized the party-army hierarchies of the past. Changes to the army, the party, and the state have contributed to an evolution of Chinese civil-military relations which can be characterized as “institutionalized.”

Suggested Citation

Fleming, Katherine V., "The Party Controls the Gun, but How? Institutionalization as a Trend in Chinese Civil-Military Relations" 29 March 2009. CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania, https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/89.