The Relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the Army during the All-Out Anti-Japanese War Period: A Survey Centered on the Taihang Base Area

摘要

“The Party leads the army,” “the Party controls the army,” and “the Party commands the gun” are the political principles and institutional designs of the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership of the army, which emphasize that the army must follow the leadership of the Party, carry out the political tasks set by the Party, and defend the key interests of the Party. After the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance against Japan, the Eighth Route Army, under the Party’s strategic guidance, marched toward the Taihang mountains. The army helped the local Party organizations there to recover and develop, while the local Party organizations helped the army to fight and to enlarge its forces. The coordination and cooperation of the local Party organizations and the army together established the basis of the political-military configuration of the Taihang Base Area and put into effect the strategic intentions of the Party. When the Base Area entered into the consolidation-and-development stage 发展巩固阶段, however, signs of discoordination emerged. In this special political situation, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the war against Japan, the Chinese Communist Party further ironed out the Party-army relationship by organization-building (for both Party central and local and military branches) and fighting against Guomindang reactionaries and the Japanese invaders and their puppet government. Particularly, the Party continued political training for the army to make sure that it remained under the absolute leadership of the Party. By uniting the army and the local Party organizations to implement the political lines and concrete policies of the Party central, a unified configuration of leadership in the Taihang Base Area was established, the Party, the army, and the people all united as a whole, and the Chinese Communist Party earned tremendous support for the war against Japan. This process involved at once the relationships between the Party central and the army 中央与军队, between the military Party branches and the army 军队党与军队, and between the local Party branches and the army 地方党与军队, and it was an arduous journey rather than an easy walk.