Few reforms have been as fraught for the Party as the modernization of the military. The more the Party pushes the PLA to develop into a modern fighting force, the greater the risk the military establishment will drift away from its traditional moorings and develop its own autonomous instincts at odds with its political masters. The trend is already well entrenched, according to Chinese officers and scholars. ‘This army has become a more professional army and therefore more of a national army than the Party’s army,’ said a prominent international relations professor in Beijing. ‘It is just
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