Duncan Bartlett
Xi Jinping holds the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, in high esteem. He sometimes copies Mao’s style of dress and displays similar mannerisms. He has even found ways to use Mao’s slogans for his own purposes.
In 1938, Mao said: “Every communist must grasp the truth; political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
In modern China, that militant idea serves as a reminder that the authority of the supreme leader rests upon his control over the military.
In what appears to be a deliberate echo of Mao, Xi told senior ranking officers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in June 2024: “We must make it clear that the barrels of guns must always be in the hands of those who are loyal and dependable to the [Chinese Communist] Party … And we must make it clear that there is no place for any corrupt elements in the military.”
Since then, a strident campaign to eradicate corruption has continued, leading to the removal of senior officers and political commissars.
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