Xi echoes Mao in urging communist political control over PLA ‘guns’

China’s supreme leader this week urged the People’s Liberation Army to maintain Chinese Communist Party political control over the “guns” of the nation, an echo of the country’s late ruler, Mao Zedong.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who also serves as chairman of the nation’s Central Military Commission, said in a speech at a former revolutionary military base in the central part of the country that the military must eliminate conditions that “breed corruption,” an endemic problem for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

“We must make it clear that the barrels of guns must always be in the hands of those who are loyal and dependable to the party,” Mr. Xi told a meeting of the CMC in Yanan, Shaanxi Province, earlier this week.

The comment is the latest example of Mr. Xi adopting many of the policies and rhetoric linked to the late founder of communist China.

Mao used the phrase “every communist must grasp the truth that political power grows from the barrel of a gun” in several ideological writings from 1927. Its most recent use appeared in the 1960 Cultural Revolution tract “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.”

Prior to the Yanan meeting, Mr. Xi called on the military to resurrect Mao’s theory of “continuous revolution” — a key communist tenet used to stave off ideological complacency. Mr. Xi has also called his anti-corruption campaigns a “self-revolution,” another term used by Mao.

Mr. Xi now wields a level of power and control not seen since Mao, who died in 1976.

The meeting in Yanan included key PLA officials and political commissars tasked with imposing strict ideological conformity within the Chinese military, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.

Mr. Xi told the military officials that the conference marked a return to the roots of the military. The gathering was billed by state media as a CMC political work conference held from Monday to Wednesday.

The session included a visit by Mr. Xi to the residences in the city used by revolutionary leaders, including Mao, Zhou Enlai and military commander Zhu De in Yanan, during the civil war that brought the communists to power in 1949.

Mao is regarded by academic analysts as one of the most notorious mass murders in history based on policies that led to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese through executions, forced labor and government-produced famines.

The speech addressed a number of issues ranging from global geopolitical challenges to Mr. Xi’s effort to overhaul the PLA into a major international force by 2027.

The PLA is confronted with ideological challenges and therefore political loyalty within the military must be strengthened to ensure “core values,” Mr. Xi said.

Problems within the military are the result of a lack of ideals and beliefs, he said.

Ideologically, the Chinese leaders told the assembled PLA officials that they must never lose the communist revolutionary fervor of CCP founders and must stay loyal to the party while preparing to confront an unstable and rapidly changing world.

“At present, we face complex and profound changes in the world, country, party and the army,” Mr. Xi was quoted as saying.

“Politically, we must incessantly promote politics in our army-building as our military face sophisticated and unparalleled challenges so that we can ensure the nature and principles of the people’s army will never change, and we can always dare to fight and win,” he said.

PLA cadres, including the most senior leaders must “dare to lose face and face up to their own shortcomings and flaws … make earnest rectifications, resolve problems that are deeply rooted in their thinking,” he said.

On corruption, the Chinese leader highlighted that despite more than a decade of anti-corruption efforts, the problem persists, including within the military.

“And we must make it clear that there is no place for any corrupt elements in the military,” he said, adding that “hotbeds and conditions that breed corruption” need to be eliminated.

Greater checks and balances are needed along with the use of a “toolbox for punishing new types of corruption and hidden corruption,” he said.

Greater supervision of high-ranking officers and their use of power is needed, he said.

The CCP has purged dozens of senior PLA officials in an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that many analysts outside China view as more likely a bid by Mr. Xi to solidify political control over the military.

Last year, Defense Minister Li Shangfu was abruptly removed with no official explanation.

Nine other senior PLA generals, including senior commanders of the PLA Rocket Force, the former air force commander and a few CMC officials with the Equipment Development Department in charge of defense procurement were purged in December.

The U.S. intelligence community’s annual threat assessment made public earlier this year said that corruption within the PLA has increased Chinese leaders’ concerns about the capabilities and reliability of the military.

An investigation into corruption related to the strategic missile forces also resulted in the dismissals of three senior Chinese aerospace executives from a senior advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Earlier in 2014 and 2015, two former vice chairmen of the CMC, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, were fired, reportedly for corruption-related offenses.