Military and Civilian Authority in China

Historically, China's military has always been a major force in the country's politics and economy (Starr, 2001, p. 90). However, as the country has developed over the last century, the military's role, though no less significant, has evolved. In particular, China's defense policy has shifted from national defense through the defense of its interior to national defense through a defense of its borders. This evolving defense policy combined with China's economic reform policies of the late 20th century has necessarily caused an evolution in the relationship between China's controlling political authority and its military branch, as well as a restructuring in the relationship between China's military and its emerging market economy.

In the days of the Chinese dynasties, the government provided food and shelter for its military through a tradition of "tuntian," or military habituation, in which the imperial army obtained most of its sustenance by farming the area in which it was stationed (Lai, 1998, p. 974). Furthermore, through the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the country's national defense policy had advocated a war doctrine that was born from the country's experiences during its invasion by first the Mongols and then the Manchus (Starr, 2001, p. 41).

China learned during these invasions that, even though the Red Army was too weak to turn back the invaders, the country's people had a great capacity for e