ABSTRACT
China’s global interests are expanding. In the process, “authority over foreign policy has become fractured” (Jakobson and Knox 2010: vii), with increasingly “omnidirectional” inputs into the policy-making process from various groups and actors. Although the civilian party leadership retains ultimate say, it is in this context that the People’s Liberation Army is seen now as “a re-emerging player that competes for influence with other actors” (Jakobson and Knox 2010: vii). On one hand, the PLA’s “formal” representation on the Politburo has declined, but on the other, it has “begun to act as an interest group, pushing its own agenda by having its officers appear on television, in military uniform, speaking out on foreign policy … This is a new phenomenon and one that makes civilians anxious” (Zweig 2010). Whether this is a unilateral PLA initiative or sanctioned by civilian leadership, however, remains unclear (Page 2010).
