MILITARY strongman General Liu Huaqing has revived the Maoist doctrine of 'invincibility of the spirit' to shore up the authority of President Jiang Zemin.
In language reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, General Liu has given top priority to ideological training and 'absolute obedience to the leader', in this case Mr Jiang.
Addressing army and civilian cadres in Shaanxi, the Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice-Chairman said: 'We must fully affirm the results which have come about because of the aggressive approach to doing ideological and political work.' 'Our People's Liberation Army wins battles wherever it goes,' the Chinese media quoted him yesterday as saying.
'Heroes keep cropping up one generation after another. What we rely upon is firm and reliable ideological and political work.' Sources close to the army said that to prepare for the post-Deng era, Mr Jiang, who is CMC Chairman, had given new impetus to his 'psychological engineering' among the troops.
This consists in stressing 'ideological purity', in other words total obedience to the party and its leader.
On the future course of 'ideological construction', General Liu repeated Mr Jiang's call to foster a revolutionary world outlook, hard struggle and plain living.
