Campaigns to tighten political control of the People’s Liberation Army have repeatedly proved necessary ahead of “key wars” and “important intersections”, the Chinese military’s mouthpiece has said as an anti-corruption drive goes deeper into the PLA’s leadership.
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In one of a number of articles on the topic in the past week, the PLA Daily said in a commentary on Wednesday that the Chinese military should “make good use of political rectification” – a euphemism for anti-corruption and political loyalty – to be fully prepared for combat at any time.
“Looking back on the history of development of our military, we have carried out major rectification every time before a key war,” the article said, referring to the second Sino-Japanese war, China’s civil war, and the Korean war.
By getting rid of corrupt practices and unifying political loyalty, political rectification had “not only ensured the completion of the military missions at the time, but also had an important impact on the construction and development of our army”.
At a time of growing national security uncertainty, the forces should not expect to be “soldiers and officers of peace time”, the article said.
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Another article in the PLA Daily, also published on Wednesday, said rectifications of the military had been needed at each “key historical intersection”, referring to campaigns in revolutionary days, during the war against Japanese aggression and another one right before the victory of the civil war.