On August 1, 2026, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) marked its 99th anniversary, standing just one year away from its centenary goals. The PLA’s history highlights the past, present, and future of China’s military strategy and underscores the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) firm grip on the military.

In December 1929, then-Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong convened a pivotal meeting in Gutian, Fujian province. At that time, the Communist Party’s armed wing was a coalition of rebel forces fighting the ruling Nationalists (Kuomintang). The Gutian Conference defined the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army as “an armed body for carrying out the political tasks of the revolution” and established party organizations throughout the military.

The following two decades saw defining moments such as the Long March, Mao’s consolidation of leadership, and the renaming of the armed forces as the People’s Liberation Army. In 1938, amid a critical juncture following the departure of co-founder and Mao’s rival Zhang Guotao, Mao wrote: “Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.”

Nearly a century later, these principles remain the political foundation ensuring the CCP’s absolute control over the military. Beijing continues to rely on Mao-era doctrines and anti-misconduct drives to maintain this control, as examined by Yuanyue Dang and William Zheng in the third part of their series on China’s military evolution.

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