(MENAFN- Asia Times)
China's failures to reform the army may lie deep in the ancient military mindset that doesn't fit modern requirements.
Can the People's Liberation Army (PLA) fight? And in case, how would they fight? They had the human waves in Korea and they advised the Vietnamese on guerrilla warfare but how would they perform in a modern war?
Reportedly[i] , General He Weidong, the second-ranked vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, denounced“fake combat capabilities” in
the military , which experts say is likely related to weapons procurement – the focus of present corruption investigations.
However, foreign experts like Kenneth Allen believe personnel is the actual weak link of the PLA. His key findings are the following:
“The PLA has continued to make major adjustments to its enlisted force since 1999. These include creating a 30-year enlisted force, recruiting college students and graduates as two-year conscripts, shifting from a one-cycle to a two-cycle per year conscription system in 2021, and directly recruiting personnel with special technical skills as NCOs.
The turnover of conscripts each year affects the annual training cycle, such that units are missing a significant number of personnel for months at a time.
The officer corps has also changed considerably by abolishing the National Defense Student program that began in 1999, reducing the number of officer academic institutions from 63 to 34 in 2017, and directly recruiting college graduates as officers.
When addressing personnel issues, one must examine each service, force, and branch, which are not equal in terms of conscript and NCO percentages as well as in the turnover of officers each year.
Males cannot get married until they are 25 and females until they are 23, so the conscript force consists almost entirely of unmarried personnel.”
Given problems identified in each of these programs, the PLA will most likely continue to make more major changes over the next decade. [ii]
These are current issues, however they may have complicated and deep cultural roots.
As Moss Roberts pointed out, Analects 2.3 argues against administrative law. Legge translated zheng 政 (make it right with a cudgel) as law. Confucius sees zheng, along with punishment, as external coercion, arguing instead for de-virtuous leaders who, as role models, keep conscience/sense of shame
chi
恥
(something like having an ear to the heart) alive in the people - a more dependable basis of social order.
Mozi disagrees and says external leverage on behavior is essential, and therefore, internal factors like virtue and conscience are unlikely to suffice. Mencius' theory of xing 性 (the personal character, what is engendered from the heart) as inherently good tries to recover the internal factors forcefully. Then, Xunzi admits the existence of xing but argues that it is evil which brings us back to the need for external force pushing people to comply.
“The phrase from 12.5, 'All men are brothers,' makes the same point. In 2.3, we find an important correlation between li and de.“Lead the people with law/governmental administration and keep order with punishments, then they will act so as to evade punishment, losing their sense of shame. Lead them with virtue (de德) and keep order with Ritual then the people will retain their sense of shame and observe discipline as well.”[iii]
Rituals like brotherhood have a hierarchy. Not everybody is equal, although classes are not clearly fixed. But there are
junzi君子, lords who give orders, and
xiao ren小人, little people. Ren仁“benevolence,” respect among equals holds the ranks.
“Mozi replaced ren with
jianai
兼愛(comprehensive love), which redefined filial service: one should serve the parents of others so that others will serve yours.”[iv] . That is,
jian ai
(jian= two hands holding tight a grain stalk, and ai sentiments between a claw and a cudgel, indicate feelings strongly controlled and held together) has no hierarchy.
There are no differences in how people are treated. People have to become a unified body that listens to their masters, conform above (shang tong尚同), and do not conspire below (xia dang下黨). This gradual social transformation was the premise of how Levy saw the army as a perfect projection of society as a whole[v] .
Albert Gavalny has a critical account of this situation. There is a precise economic dimension to war. Conflict is not profitable; it's wasteful, and it puts its survival at stake
“Squandering and losses arising from any military outlay are the equivalent of ten annual harvests. Faced with the prospect of similar expenditure, few states are in a position to put together and participate in a military coalition.” (Zhanguo ce 12:672).[vi]
Plus, incorporating new land and people within the existing state was not a carefree exercise.
Greek armies moved differently. They pillaged the land, divided the spoils among the victors, and imposed a 'command' empire on the“victi” who paid taxes, tributes to Rome but famously kept their laws and religions.
In ancient China, we are in totally different circumstances, as war is deemed dangerous, expensive, and rewarding less than it can potentially beget. It is waged as a matter of survival of one's political domain, but not for the economic returns moving Greek-Roman armies.
The generals and the strategists become very important.
Here, the primary tool of control of the soldier is fear. In Greece, fighting a war is about greed and self-preservation of the“polis,” the“res publica” to which each soldier feels he belongs. It is then about his friends, agape, brotherly love, built by being next to each other, holding a spear or a shield.
Conversely, in ancient China, we have this:
The Chinese did that by capitalizing on the familial sentiment. If a soldier, a child in a large family with many children, dies, the family will be rewarded. If one shrinks duties, the family will be punished.
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