PLAAF Leadership and Command System

The PLAAF’s leadership and command system (Й^ІнШФФІ) consists of the Party Congress (^RSR#), Party Committees (^S), the leaders (Й^ #R), and the four departments (A^, Headquarters, Political, Logistics, and Equipment, discussed previously). The PLAAF’s leadership and command system also refers to the following headquarters levels: PLAAF Headquarters, MRAF Headquarters, deputy corps – and division leader-level CPs, division and brigade headquarters, and regiment headquarters.50

Party Congresses and Party Committees: Party members elect members of the PLAAF Party Congress, and, once elected, the Party Congress members are responsible for discussing and deciding on key PLAAF issues. The Party Con­gress is also responsible for electing the members of the PLAAF Party Commit­tee.51 The Party Committee, in turn, then elects a Standing Committee (^S^S) and Discipline Inspection Commission (ffiftA^SM#).52 According to PLAAF 2010, in most cases, the PC serves as the Party secretary and the commander serves as the deputy secretary. In some situations, the commander is the secre­tary and the political officer is the deputy secretary. For example, three PLAAF commanders—Wu Faxian, Zhang Tingfa, and Qiao Qingchen—were the also the Party secretary as a result of having previously served as the PLAAF PC.53 The PLAAF has had eleven Party Congresses since 1956—averaging one every 5 years over the past three decades. The 11th Party Congress was held in May 2009. Over the past 20 years, the number of representatives has averaged around 280­300, the number of Party Committee members has averaged around 40-45, and the number of members of the Discipline Inspection Commission has averaged around 10-11. The PLAAF’s Standing Committee currently has 11 members.

While the Party Congresses meet only once every 5 years, the Party Com­mittee meets about twice a year to review the Standing Committee’s actions and to decide important PLAAF issues. Meanwhile, the Party Committee’s Standing Committee is responsible for making the daily decisions concerning the PLAAF, but is responsible to the Party Committee for its decisions. Besides each regiment and above-level headquarters having its own Party Committee (hPPA^S), every first-, second-, and third-level department has its own Party Committee (A^^S), with the director as the Party secretary and one of the deputy directors as the deputy secretary. In the case of the Logistics Depart­ment and Equipment Department, however, the PC is the secretary and the director is the deputy secretary.

PLAAF Leaders: The commander (^ФМ) and PC (&)nSM / &S) are the air force’s highest leaders (жЛ#^).54 Of particular note, the PC and commander are co-equals and, with only a few exceptions, serve as the secretary and deputy secretary of the PLAAF’s Party committee, respectively.55 One PLA political works book states that, together, the commander and PC are responsible under the PLAAF Party Committee’s guidance for all types of work (^H^).56 Under the guidance of the Party Committee’s unified leadership, the commander and PC together are responsible for dividing up leadership responsibilities for subordinate units.57 Based on interviews with PLA officers over the past two decades, in general, this means that the commander is responsible for operational and support work while the PC is responsible for political work.58 This does not mean, however, that the PC, as the Party secretary or deputy secretary, cannot provide input into operational issues.

Most importantly, the PLAAF’s leaders at every level consist of the mem­bers of the Party Committee’s Standing Committee, who also make up the com­mand staff.59 The PLAAF’s Party Committee Standing Committee, not just the commander, at every level is responsible for making important decisions. Dur­ing the meeting, everyone has an equal vote; however, once the decision is made, then every member is responsible for implementing it.60 Unlike the USAF, PLAAF Headquarters averages five to six deputy commanders and two to three deputy PCs, while units down to the regiment level can have two to three deputy commanders and one to two deputy PCs. Based on a review of PLAAF sources, each deputy commander has a portfolio that covers two or more tasks that appear to match up with the second-level departments within the first-level Headquar­ters, Logistics, and Equipment Departments. While some deputy commanders may have responsibilities within only a single first-level department, others have responsibilities in more than one department.61 The following is a brief overview of the PLAAF’s commanders, PCs, deputy commanders, and chiefs of staff.62

Since 1949, the PLAAF has had 10 commanders. As a group, they aver­age 17 years-old when first joining the service. Given the overall poor educa­tion system and political turmoil in China until the 1980s, none of them had even a high school degree when they joined. At first, aviation experience did not constitute a command requirement; only in 1973 did the PLAAF have a commander who was himself a pilot, Ma Ning.63 His successor, Zhang Tingfa, was not a pilot, but since Zhang, all PLAAF commanders have been pilots. Beginning with Ma, they all received 1 to 2 years of basic flight training at a PLAAF flight school, which served as their undergraduate-level education. Additionally, most of them have taken intermediate – or advanced-level profes­sional military education courses.64 Since 1977, five of the seven commanders took office when they were 60-63 years old and, on average, remained in office until 65-67. The current commander, General Xu Qiliang, joined the PLAAF at age 16, became the commander in 2007 at age 57 and will most likely remain on active duty until at least the CCP’s 19th Party Congress in 2017. As noted earlier, the commander is only one of the members of the Party Standing Com­mittee, thus limiting his individual authority. To date, 4 of the 10 commanders have been Party secretary and 6 have been deputy secretary. In addition, 4 com­manders—Liu Yalou, Zhang Tingfa, Qiao Qingchen, and Xu Qiliang—have been CMC members. As noted earlier, the commander at each level has more authority during wartime to make decisions without first receiving approval from the Party Standing Committee or the Party Committee as a whole.

The political commissar is the leader ($й^^) for all daily Party work at his level and his unit’s subordinate organizations under the guidance of the Party committee at his level and the next higher level.65 The commissar holds the same grade as commander, with the exception of the PLAAF’s PC, who has the grade of military region leader, while the PLAAF commander has the grade of a CMC member.66 Since 1949, the PLAAF has had 11 PCs, 3 of whom became the commander where they also served as the Party secretary. The cur­rent PC, General Deng Changyou, assumed his position in 2002 and will have to retire at age 65 at the time of the 18th Party Congress in 2012. There was no discernible trend in selecting these leaders. For example, the first eight PCs began their careers in the army and then transferred to the PLAAF; however, the last three have spent their entire careers in the PLAAF. In addition, only four deputy PCs and one MRAF PC have become the PLAAF PC.

The PLAAF has had over 40 deputy commanders (ІШФМ). The first 14 were ground force officers who had served in the army until the PLAAF was formed in 1949: not until 1973 did the PLA assign a pilot (Zhang Jihui) as a deputy commander. Between 1973 and 1982, all of the other deputy com­manders had their roots in the ground forces as PCs or commanders. In 1982, Wang Hai became only the second pilot to be assigned as a deputy commander, but since then, most of the deputy commanders have been pilots. In Febru­ary 2009, an anomaly occurred when the PLA assigned a career army offi­cer, Lieutenant General Chen Xiaogong, as one of the deputy commanders. This was most likely an issue of “guanxi” (for example, personal relationships) rather than the army’s desire to inject ground force control within the PLAAF Headquarters. Not only are deputy commanders responsible for specific tasks within their portfolio, but they can also be deployed elsewhere to serve as the commander or as a backup commander. For example, the joint commander (K ■аШШт) can deploy an air force deputy commander (§іЩШ№М) to the antiair raid command center to take responsibility for air force operations and anti­air raid operations.67 In a “real world” example, during the 2008 Sichuan earth­quake, the CMC designated the Chengdu MRAF as the PLAAF Forward CP (Шн№№) and deployed one of the PLAAF’s deputy commanders, Lieutenant General Jing Wenchun, as the commander of air force relief operations.68

Since 1949, the PLAAF has had 12 chiefs of staff (#Ш^).69 The chief of staff, who is the director of the Headquarters Department, is one of the unit’s leaders (#^z—) along with the commander, PC, and deputy commanders and PCs. The chief of staff has the same grade as the deputy commanders. As such, he is the primary officer responsible for assisting the principal leaders in military (e. g., command) building by organizing and coordinating all related activities. He is also the command staff’s leader, responsible for organizing the unit’s military administrative work and implementing the command staff’s intentions (Й®) and resolution O&U). He is directly responsible for all Head­quarters Department activities and is head of the PLAAF’s CP.70