Leaders of military’s Eastern command gather in Gutian town in show of loyalty to Communist Party
Top officers pledge oath to party flag and visit Mao Zedong memorial in historically significant town
The leadership of the newly established Eastern Theatre Command’s land force gathered in the historically significant town of Gutian in Fujian province on Wednesday, one day just after President Xi Jinping visited the cradle of the Communist Party revolution in the remote mountains of Jiangxi on Tuesday.
Military experts said the meeting in Gutian was aimed at showing the PLA’s loyalty to Xi, the chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, who spent 17 years in the eastern province.
The military have made several visits to revolutionary bases since Xi came to power in 2012, highlighting the seriousness of the morality problem within the fighting force. A series of corruption scandals have rocked the PLA to the top of its command structure in the CMC.
The heads of the Eastern Theatre Command journeyed by train from their base in Fuzhou, the provincial capital, to nearby Gutian town on Wednesday, the People’s Frontline News, or Renmin Qianxian, a military newspaper under the combat group, reported on its website.
The contingent was led by Lieutenant General Qin Weijiang, Eastern land force commander, and political commissar Major General Liao Keduo.
Gutian hosted the ninth congress in 1929, a meeting that cemented the subservience of the military to the party. Mao Zedong chaired the proceedings, and his role at Gutian is remembered with a memorial hall. The visiting officers made a pledge to the part flag and visited the hall, to reiterate the importance of upholding the traditional spirit of the PLA’s predecessor, the Red Army.
President Xi Jinping on Tuesday paid his first visit as president to Jinggangshan in Jiangxi, where Mao set up the first revolutionary base in 1927.