CHINA’S PRESIDENT ASSERTS CIVILIAN CONTROL OF MILITARY BUT PLA RETAINS ROLE IN AIRPORTS
March 1st, 2017
WHEN China’s President Xi Jinping donned a red helmet and rubber boots to walk the construction site of Beijing’s new airport on February 23 (2017), he told the assembled engineers and workers that the airport was part of China’s plan to become a “powerful civil aviation nation.”
Xi is perhaps better positioned than any previous Chinese leader to make that plan happen. That is because since taking power, he has completely overhauled the Chinese military, which still directly controls much of the country’s airspace and oversees the traffic management ...
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