In 1938, in the midst of a long campaign to bring China under Communist Party rule, revolutionary leader Mao Zedong wrote: "Whoever has an army has power."
Xi Jinping, Mao's latest successor, has taken that dictum to heart.
He has donned camouflage fatigues, installed himself as commander-in-chief and taken control of the 2 million-strong Chinese military, the People's Liberation Army. It is the biggest overhaul of the PLA since Mao led it to victory in the nation's civil war and founded the People's Republic in 1949.