Xi shaping up to be an influential PLA commander

Mao Zedong once famously said that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun". Decades later, another Communist Party leader appears to be putting a modern spin on that old maxim.

As China celebrates Army Day, marking the anniversary of the founding in 1927 of the People's Liberation Army, President Xi Jinping is making his presence felt as commander in chief, earning favourable comparisons with his two predecessors for his handling of military matters.

Indeed, analysts say Xi's performance in his dual role as chairman of the party's and its Central Military Commission has been more significant than the administrative changes he has introduced as president.

Xi took over from Hu Jintao as chairman of the party's top military decision-making body in November, at the same time as he became general secretary of the Communist Party and months before he replaced Hu as president.

The fact Xi took over as military chief immediately - unlike Hu, who waited 21/2 years for Jiang Zemin to hand over the commission chairmanship, was taken as a sign of Xi's firm grip on power.

As he toured the Beijing military area command on Monday ahead of his first Army Day in office, Xi stressed that the 2.3 million-strong PLA must "strictly follow the party leadership" and be "absolutely loyal and reliable".

As with past top leaders in the post-Deng Xiaoping era, Xi is seeking to build a strong relationship with the armed forces, a relationship he sees as key to cementing his status as military and party chief. Within months, Xi has managed to inspect major military regions and visit the troops of all the PLA armed forces divisions, as well as armed police and maritime guards. Xi also visited an air force base deep in the Gobi desert and navy bases on islands in the South China Sea.