"........"We must make sure the army will follow the instruction of the [Central Military Commission] and the Communist Party at any time, under any circumstances,"
SMH
John Garnaut in Beijing
February 3, 2009
THE Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and his top generals have publicly ordered the military to obey the Communist Party "at any time, under any circumstances", as China enters its most politically fraught year since 1989.
Chinese officials yesterday warned of social instability as they raised their estimate of newly unemployed migrant workers to 20 million - triple the number they gave a month ago.
The huge economic and social dislocation coincides with a series of pressing political tests, including next month's 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama fleeing Tibet, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4 and a small but strident new democracy movement.
"We must make sure the army will follow the instruction of the [Central Military Commission] and the Communist Party at any time, under any circumstances," the commission said after a meeting chaired by Mr Hu. "We must always be sure of the army's stability and its unity," the commission said, in a statement read out on China Central Television's prime time news on Sunday night.
A senior military leader separately warned yesterday that China would "accelerate the building of our nuclear and conventional combat strength". This marks a sharp break from a three decades-old policy of maintaining a stable and relatively small nuclear arsenal while rapidly building its conventional forces.
The comments were penned by Jing Zhiyuan, the commander of the second artillery corps, in an article for the party's main journal on theory and policy.
Experts say Mr Hu's comments reveal the party's acute anxiety about potential uprisings rather than any immediate call to arms.
Chinese leaders sometimes exaggerate the risks to their hold on power to ensure the party sticks together in difficult times - a lesson learned after a top leadership split led to huge protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and a subsequent bloody crackdown.
But Sunday's military commission statement was unusual in its strident language and its prominent broadcast.
"When you have growing social unrest the party leadership always makes sure they have their coercive elements prepared in case they may be drafted in to stabilise things, like in 1989," said Tai Ming Cheung, an expert on the People's Liberation Army at the University of California. "I don't think this indicates any great distrust between the party and the military or that there is any significant tensions or possible unrest within the military ranks."
This week would normally mark the end of Chinese new year festivities, when rural migrants head back to their urban jobs at factories, construction sites and restaurants.
But China's leading rural expert said tens of millions would not make the journey this year.
Chen Xiwen, a top rural planning official, told reporters yesterday: "Due to the economic downturn, about 20 million rural migrant workers have either lost their jobs or have not yet found employment and have gone home to the countryside.
"After returning to their village what do they do about revenue? About their lives? This is a new factor impacting this year's social stability."
Mr Chen said the number of newly unemployed rural migrant workers was likely to rise to about 25 million as new job seekers entered the market.
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