Xi Jinping to take control of China’s military reserve forces from July 1

China will reportedly centralise the management of its reserve forces under the unified command of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Central Military Commission (CMC). According to the state-controlled Xinhua news agency, the military reserve forces will fall under the direct leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, head of both CCP and CMC, from July 1.

Amid heightened tension with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), China’s latest attempt to centralise the power is aimed at “absolute leadership” over the military. The reserve forces are currently under the dual leadership of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and local Party committees and governments.

The official announcement noted that the adjustment in the leadership structure is aimed at upholding the CPC's “absolute leadership over the army and building a strong military in the new era”. China experts have called Xi as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and the Chinese President have been trying to consolidate the power under his leadership.

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China's ambition of total control

Last week, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien commented on China’s global ambition and the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology of total control. O’Brien said that actively seeks leadership positions in global organisations to dictate its ideologies. Noting that China now leads four out of 15 UN bodies, O'Brien said that Bejing was using those leadership positions to coerce international bodies into agreeing with Chinese policies and also to install Chinese telecommunication equipment in their facilities.

O’Brien said that the political ideology which was discarded by Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union has remained fundamental to the Chinese Communist Party. He noted that the Chinese Communist Party seeks total control over people’s lives including economic control, political control, physical control, and, “perhaps most importantly, it means thought control”.

Giving his narrow interpretation of communism, O’Brien said that individuals are merely a means to be used toward the achievement of the ends of the collective nation-state. He said that individuals can be easily sacrificed for the nation-state’s goals and individuals do not have inherent value under Marxism-Leninism. 

“They exist to serve the state; the state does not exist to serve them,” he added.

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(Image: AP)