Political warfare (South China)

Political warfare, abbreviated as Polwar in American English, is a branch of military operations in the Republic of China that blends elements of ideology-focused political officers, psychological operations (PSYOP) and information warfare.

Role

In the modern Republic of China Armed Forces political warfare involves three main functions:

• Ensuring loyalty of Chinese military personnel to the state apparatus
• Maintaining morale and nationalist education within military units of all kinds
• Gain the support of local populations and degrade support for guerrillas or state adversaries through psychological operations, counter-psychological operations and civil engagement

The Political Warfare Corps differs from the Information Warfare Corps in that the latter focuses on operations directed towards enemy troops and civilians in territory not owned or occupied by the Republic of China, as opposed to former’s focus on their own troops and civilian populations in territories controlled by the Republic of China.

There are political warfare officers at all levels of command from platoons to army levels. These are the personnel responsibile for maintaining the unit's morale, nationalist education, and monitoring soldiers for loyalty. In platoons and companies these are usually deputy commanders appointed to the role as a secondary duty, but in battalions and above they are usually a dedicated staff member part of the Political Warfare Corps. They may have other duties, such as acting as the unit S-1 or G-1 (personnel staff officer). In essence, deputy platoon and company commanders are tactical officers and logisticians first and political officers second, whereas at battalion and above it is the opposite. However, at no level is the political warfare officer considered to be an equal to superior to the military commander.

Units division-sized and larger also usually have a dedicated political warfare units dedicated to psychological operations on civilian populations.

Cooperation with SIPDO partners

It has been argued that China's western partners—notably the United States, Australia, and New Zealand—do not fully understand the political warfare system. Generally South China's dedicated political warfare units conduct joint training with western psychological operations or civil affairs units, as there is no perfect equivalent. The live-in political warfare officers are portrayed in western military papers and newsreels as being normal deputy commanders, S-1s, morale officers, or a form of provost marshal. These descriptions are somewhat imprecise and downplay the political aspect to the role—particularly its history of consolidating loyalty to the KMT—as western militaries presuppose loyalty to the state from their members and forbid overt partisanship in military administration.

History

The concept of political officers was introduced to Sun Yat-sen's Republic China in the 1924 during political exchange with the Soviets. The newly established Whampoa Military Academy under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek in Guangzhou (later relocated to Nanjing after the Northern Expedition) was staffed with Soviet advisers to aid in political education. On Sun Yat-sen's end, this was to gain positive insights from a nation that successfully secured its own revolution and combat warlordism. For the Soviets, they wished to spread the seeds of communism abroad after their efforts to do so had been stonewalled in Europe and balance the power of Japan. Although the political officer system in the Republic of China was strained in the wake of the Nanking incident of 1927 and Shanghai massacre against the Chinese Communists, it was retained in principle, restructured and remained a key component of the Republic of China armed forces through the Sino-Japanese War.

The polwar concept is closely related to the communist political officer or political commissar as the two have a common origin. The South Chinese Political Warfare Officer and North Chinese Political Officer in fact do almost the same tasks, except the South Chinese equivalent has a larger focus on civil-military and psychological operations while the North Chinese equivalent is mainly focused on political education. As well, in North China the Political Officer is officially the chair of the Chinese Communist Party committee, branch, or cell in a dual-command structure alongside the military structure. In South China, the Political Warfare Officer is by law non-partisan, focused primarily on a programme based on syncretic national Buddhist-Christian-Confucian patriotism and loyalty to the state rather than the ruling party. However, the Political Warfare Corps is often criticized as a de facto organ of the Kuomintang.