President Hu Jintao has stressed that the People's Liberation Army should make 'complete obedience to the party' one of its tasks amid military modernisation.
Loyalty to the party has always been PLA policy, but analysts believe Hu reiterated the ideological imperative after seeing what happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
'[We] must persevere with socialism with Chinese characteristics in our armed forces, which make the whole army maintain a clear and solid ideology,' Hu (pictured) told PLA deputies in a panel session at the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing yesterday.
'[The army] should unswervingly obey the party's command - which is the basic principle - and keep fostering the core values of contemporary soldiers.'
The so-called 'core values of contemporary soldiers' stress five spirits - loyalty to the party, love for the people, serving the country, devotion to missions and upholding honour.
Hu mentioned the importance of 'loyalty to the party' three times in his speech, according to a Xinhua report.