People's Volunteer Army - Discipline and Political Control

Discipline and Political Control

Even though the discipline of the PVA was strict by western standards, it is a notable improvement when compared to the Nationalist and warlord armies. Discipline was applied universally within the army, with the Party members expected to be punished more than non-Party soldiers for the same infraction. Beatings and abuses were also forbidden by regulations. Although capital punishments were enforced for disobeying certain orders, it was rarely used in accordance with the Chinese traditions. Normally, public shamings and political indoctrination camps were preferred methods in dealing with serious infractions such as desertion, and the punished are expected to return to for frontline duty with his original unit.

Like the Soviet army, political and military officers formed a dual chain of command within the PVA, and this arrangement could be found as low as the company level. Political officers were in charge of the control and the morale of the troops, and they were often expected to act like role models in combat. Unlike other Communist armies of the same period, although the political officers had authority over military officers on combat decisions, the military officers could issue orders without political officers' approval. Similarly, the line between military and political officers were often blurred in PVA, since the political officers often had extensive military experiences while most military officers were senior Party members within a unit.

Besides the political officers, Party members and Party candidates also enforced political controls within the ranks. Squads were often divided into three-man fireteams, with each fireteam led by a Party member or a Party candidate. Group meetings were frequently used to maintain unit cohesion, and within the meetings public shamings and criticisms were conducted to raise morale and to indoctrinate soldiers.

The by-product of the tight political control within the PVA is that it relied on the presence of the Party members within its ranks to be combat effective. A PVA unit could disintegrate once the Party members were either killed or wounded in action. Also, the tight political control had created a general dissatisfaction amongst the Chinese ranks, and it required constant political indoctrination and high peer pressure to maintain high morale for each soldier.