Front cover image for Gun barrel politics : party--army relations in Mao's China

Gun barrel politics : party--army relations in Mao's China

Fang Chu
Why was the Chinese army during the Maoist era so deeply involved in politics but failed to seize the highest political office? The answer can be found in the system of civil-military dualism, which originates from China's revolutionary history and is maintained by the post-revolutionary party-state. In such a system, military participation in politics is not only normal but required. The party ruled. Yet it did not do so through military professionalism or organizational control as much as through the integration of military elites into political leadership

Print Book, English, 1998
Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1998