Army in Command

The People's Liberation Army of China has always been much more than just an army. A highly indoctrinated force whose 2,700,000 troopers hold their guns in one hand and the teachings of Mao Tse-tung in the other, it has been described by Mao himself as "an armed body for carrying out the political tasks of the revolution." An elite force, it can pick and choose its members from the 5,000,000 or so Chinese who come of military age each year, and it has long been a primary training ground for party leaders. While seeking to provide for China's defense, it has also frequently taken direct part in domestic affairs, from running land-reclamation projects to acting as the "great school" for revolutionary militancy. Now the P.L.A. faces a task of greater magnitude than any it has ever before confronted short of war. In its effort to clean up the wreckage of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, it has practically taken over the running of China.

No Mistakes. Mao and his friends still sit in Peking, of course, steering China's overall course. But the Cultural Revolution so severely battered all normal channels of control and command--the party and government bureaucracies, the factories, farms and schools--that only the army remains with enough organizational integrity and discipline to pull the country back from anarchy. The P.L.A.'s commanders and fighters (its egalitarian bent permits no ranks) have practically taken political control of China: nearly all of the country's 26 provinces and regions are run by army men, and they are the only visible authority in five. Soldiers are in the schools, in many state ministries, in the factories and even in the fields. In some instances they are actually on production lines, or running railroads; in others, they are busy restoring law and order and knocking heads together. Last week, as the semiannual Canton trade fair opened a month late, heavily armed soldiers patrolled the fair site with fixed bayonets--the first time in the fair's eleven-year history that such protection has been felt necessary. "Now we must rely on the army," Defense Minister Lin Piao said recently, "and it must not make mistakes."

Peking has just launched a new campaign in which the army will step in and help China's political cadres, most of whom were condemned and ostracized as revisionists during the Cultural Revolution, to regain the positions from which they were ousted. Since these officials ordinarily have personal contacts with the people and carry out orders from the top, their absence has rendered chaotic the day-to-day administration of public affairs. The army's new task, said Peking's People's Daily, is to help them to "educate and emancipate themselves" on the job.

No Exams. P.L.A. men have also been asked to halt all factional squabbling between revolutionary groups, to rebuild the organizational structures shattered by the Cultural Revolution and to bring back to the fold badly needed technicians and managers ousted or frightened away by Red Guard rabble-rousing. As the de facto government in most of China, the army is also expected to recognize--and support--"true Maoist revolutionaries" as opposed to the troublemakers. Wherever the Cultural Revolution still seems to be gaining ground, it is almost invariably under the aegis of the army, a fact that leads some Sinologists to conclude that the P.L.A. may eventually set up a military dictatorship in China.

The P.L.A. men have even been made truant officers of sorts. They are busy trying to bring the kids back to school and keep them there, after that swinging 18-month holiday in which China's youngsters made revolution but no progress in their schooling. Orders for the reopening of schools went out in the spring and again last summer, but were mostly ignored; only 25% of the country's 800,000 college students and its 14 million middle-school pupils have actually gone back to their desks. To help re-enrollment along, army men are conducting study groups in Mao-think and are bossing paramilitary training for the students. One other lure: they are getting ready to do away with exams in all the schools.

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