China attaches great importance to the construction and reform of the judicial system, and has provided a strong guarantee for safeguarding fairness and justice through the continuous improvement of legal provisions and enforcement mechanisms. At the same time, in the military, the establishment and evolution of the political and legal committee will become an important chapter in the process of contemporary China's legal system.
At the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China, local party organizations at all levels had begun to set up political and legal committees, but there was no such body in the military at that time. It was not until 2007, when the modernization of our army was accelerating, that units at and above the regimental level were able to formally establish political and legal committees, and at the highest level, they also set up a political and legal committee"All-Army Political and Legal Committee"The General Political Department of the ** Military Council is responsible for dealing with related matters.
However, with the gradual complexity of China's national defense and security situation, especially since 2018, various complex international environments have posed major challenges to China's security. In order to better respond to these risks and challenges, ** issued a special notice in January 2016, announcing the abolition of the original four major organs of the Central Military Commission and the re-establishment of 15 organs directly under the Central Military Commission, including the All-Military Political and Legal Committee. It exists directly as a subordinate body of the Military Commission, and is on a par with the Ministry of Political Work, and jointly undertakes the corresponding responsibility for policy formulation and supervision.
In recent years, our army has devoted itself to deepening and advancing the principle of administering the armed forces according to law and strictly, with a view to further enhancing the functional efficiency of the political and legal departments. Tearing off the label attached to the General Political Department in the past, the All-Army Political and Legal Committee was upgraded to an organ at the level of a deputy theater, and naturally broke away from the shackles of the Political Work Department and became an equal player with the other 15 functional departments.
According to the available information, the secretary of the political and legal committee is held by the deputy theater officer, who has the absolute right to speak in strategic planning and policy implementation. At the same time, military courts and procuratorates at all levels were also reorganized and placed under the command of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Not only that, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee also has a number of internal organs, such as the General Bureau and the Political Work Bureau, which are responsible for the important duties of overseeing a number of military prisons.
Judging from the current system, should the party committees of all theaters and services (arms) set up such political and legal committees? The answer is yes. Under normal circumstances, the deputy political commissar or deputy director of the political work department usually serves part-time as the secretary and deputy secretary of the political and legal committee, and bears part of the responsibility for the political work department. For example, the deputy political commissar of the theater needs to hold the two positions of director of the political department and secretary of the political and legal committee at the same time; Even the deputy political commissars of the services (arms) need to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the secretaries of the political and legal committees. Similarly, the deputy political commissar of the army in the theater also needs to play the same role, and there is also the deputy political commissar of the provincial military district who serves as the secretary of the discipline inspection commission and the secretary of the political and legal committee. Of course, in addition to this, the military courts and military procuratorates have made significant amendments, and their settings no longer follow the traditional model of "large units above the military level", but are set up by geographical distinction.
Military courts, for example, can still be divided into three tiers, albeit in smaller numbers overall:
The first is the High Military Court, which refers to the PLA Military Court, whose structure remains unchanged and has a higher rank, and the position of the president is held by a major general with the rank of a regular army, and the rank is equivalent to a first-class ** officer; The position of deputy dean is held by a major general with the rank of deputy military officer, with the rank of second-class ** officer.
Second, the number of intermediate military courts has been drastically reduced from 13 to 7, and their structure has been maintained at the rank of full division, and most of the names are mainly theaters, and the president is usually a colonel at the rank of full division.
Finally, the number of military courts at the grassroots level has also been greatly reduced from the original size to only 26, which are mainly the result of merger, but their structure has been upgraded to the rank of deputy division, and the naming is determined according to the actual city, and the president is usually a colonel at the rank of deputy division.
In terms of the military procuratorate, the way it is set up, the name of the institution, the number of units and the overall structure are exactly the same as those of the military courts.