When the People's Republic of China (PRC) was
founded in 1949, command of the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) was transferred to the
People's Revolutionary Military Commission, a state body, with the CCP leading the coalition government. The CCP CMC was abolished. The
1954 PRC constitution designated the
president as the
supreme commander, and also as the chair of the
National Defense Commission (NDC). At the same time, the CCP CMC was reestablished and became the primary policy-making body for the armed forces. The separation of command and policy-making between the state and the party was bridged by the shared memberships of the state and party bodies; for example,
Mao Zedong was president and CMC chairman from 1954 to 1959. In the late-1970s and the end of the
Cultural Revolution, the presidency was
abolished and revisions to the PRC and CCP constitutions made the
CCP chairman the supreme commander.
Deng Xiaoping's
political reforms again divided responsibilities for the armed forces between the party and the state. The
1982 PRC constitution created the PRC CMC to formally exercise supreme command, with the
National People's Congress selecting the chairman, and handle all matters except political work. The CCP CMC — as defined in the 1982 CCP constitution — was responsible for political work. Again, conflicts between the CMCs were eliminated by shared membership. The relationship between the CMCs and various state and party bodies can make the exercise of supreme command legally ambiguous. The ambiguity may have caused the CCP's regular demands for loyalty from the armed forces since the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. == References ==