People's Army Quotes
This has been the case ever since WWII. In the Great March where the Communists avoided capture by the Nationalists, the army, the party, and many of the people were in a single amalgam living on the move. The positive and fair behavior of the Communist army during the Great March did a great deal to convince the Chinese peasants that the Communists were not corrupt and greedy as were most of the Nationalist officials they ran into. From a strict military point of view, there was little for the Army to do for defense and national security since the overthrow of the Nationalists. So they have been great supporters of development of the nation after the revolution, but by the 21st century had developed some of their own corruption and built companies to produce funds for the army (and some of its leaders personally.
This was a fairly unique notion. In Russia the army never played this role to the same degree. The Long March in Chinese History blended and amalgamated the people and the army in a way that was unique in World History.
Mao and other Chinese leaders molded the people into an Army to fight the invading Japanese in WWII after which they were attacked by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. In a remarkable trek of escape the Communists moved across China to escape the nationalists while the Red Army provided protection. Without the Red Army, the Communists would easily have been overrun then and after the Nationalists “escaped” to Taiwan they planned and threatened to invade the mainland. It was the Red Army that kept them at bay, and so the “People’s Army” has an emotional, historical and intellectual impact and role even in 21st Century China when there really are no enemies that would attack China.
