Explainer | What is China’s Central Military Commission and why is it so powerful?
- During the 20th party congress in Beijing this week, all eyes will be on who CMC chairman Xi Jinping chooses to join the top brass
- The CMC is similar to a ministry of defence in other countries, while Beijing’s Ministry of National Defence is mainly for diplomatic and PR purposes
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What is the CMC?
The CMC is China’s top military decision-making and commanding body. It upholds the power to command all China’s armed forces, decide their strategy and courses of action and manage their development, personnel, equipment, funding and assets, among other issues, as Chinese laws stipulate.
The agency consists of 16 functional departments, such as the Joint Staff Department and the Logistical Support Department. It also oversees the headquarters of the PLA’s five theatre commands, six force branches and several affiliated research institutions and academies.
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In a sense, the CMC serves many of the functions a ministry of defence has in other countries. The Ministry of National Defence is mainly for diplomatic and public relations purposes, although the title of defence minister is always held by a CMC member.
The CMC chairman and members are elected by the Communist Party’s national congress every five years. This year, Xi is expected to be re-elected for a third term at the session’s close later this week.
More than one CMC in China?
At the same time, there is another CMC – the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China.
According to the constitution, the power to lead all the country’s armed forces falls into the hands of this commission, which must be elected or removed by, and responsible to, the National People’s Congress.
But in fact, the CMC of the state and the CMC of the party are essentially “one organisation with different brands”. They have the same members; each with corresponding titles and roles.
This arrangement was an attempt to fit the party’s absolute control of the military into a modern constitutional state structure.
Why is the party’s CMC so powerful?
Mao Zedong established the principle “the party commands the gun” when founding the Red Army. The CMC, long chaired by Mao, was the pivot from which to exercise power in wartime.
As the Red Army grew into the PLA and eventually won the Chinese civil war, this principle became a doctrine in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China.
Nowadays, the party retains absolute leadership over the PLA and all other armed forces in China, such as the People’s Armed Police.
The most recent major reform of the CMC started in 2015, with Xi overhauling the armed forces and restructuring the commission into what it is now.
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Power of the CMC Chairman
Since the Communist Party holds absolute leadership over the PLA and all other armed forces in China, the chairman of the CMC is the ultimate leader of China’s military forces.
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Under Deng, the country’s 1982 constitution authorised supreme military decision-making power for the chairman of the CMC, and placed this post at the top of the organisational hierarchy of the armed forces.
After an amendment passed at the 19th party congress in 2017 under Xi, the constitution of the Communist Party states “the chairperson of the Central Military Commission assumes overall responsibility over the work of the commission”.
