Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Saturday, March 12, 2011

It's okay. There is civilian control of the military.

The Chinese president outlined the responsibilities of the country's military. It sounds quite different from what those of us who live in Western democracies expect. Can your students point out the differences?

Chinese President urges army to provide security guarantee for building well-off society

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech while attending a plenary meeting of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) deputies to the Fourth Session of the 11th National People's Congress in Beijing, China, March 12, 2011.

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday urged the armed forces to provide solid security guarantee for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects…

The armed forces should speed up their efforts in pushing forward the modernization of national defense and the army, so as to resolutely safeguard state sovereignty, security and development interests, said Hu.

The armed forces should unswervingly obey the Party's command, said Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

In the meantime, Hu urged the armed forces to actively participate in economic, social and ecological construction, support the transformation of economic development pattern, and shoulder emergency response tasks such as disaster relief…