PLA pledges allegiance to Party's "absolute leadership"

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) reiterated its commitment to the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in a new document released Friday.

According to the document on the political work of the PLA issued by the Central Military Commission, the armed forces will perfect the current system, increase the capacity of Party organs attached to it and ensure strict discipline.

The key mission of the political work is to "forge the soul" of the armed forces so that officers and soldiers will follow the CPC's commands, the document said.

The political work of the PLA often refers to other tasks of the armed forces than combat training, such as ideological education and human resource management.

In the face of new circumstances and challenges, political work must be enhanced rather than weakened, it said, adding that Party officials in this line of work should be proactive.

"We should be fully aware of the ultimate importance, necessity and urgency to improve the political work in the PLA and always regard it as the top priority," it said.

The armed forces should be educated with important theories of communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as the principles and policies put forward by President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

The top task of ideological education is to foster faith throughout all levels of the armed forces, especially the upper echelons.

"We should work to train a new generation of servicemen with soul, skill, personality and integrity," the document said.

They should be confident of the path, theory and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, it said. Endi