M. Taylor Fravel

While a rather dry read, this work feels like a genuine advance in terms of providing an understanding of how, and by what criteria, the leadership of the post-1950 Chinese state organized military affairs. Fravel's overarching insight is that while the leadership of the People's Liberation Army being enrolled in the Chinese Communist Party does not represent a bar to change and reform, this is only the case when consensus rules in the Party. Otherwise, stagnation tends to occur.

The big exception to this was Mao's military shift of 1964, with its emphasis on elastic defense and using the military as a tool of social control. Now that Xi Jinping has apparently obtained a comparable level of control, the question begged is what he will do with that power. Particularly in the new environment of international and economic instability.… (mehr)