The GPD is the department of the political commissars – officials who impose political ideology and education upon the troops. The principal goal is loyalty to the Chinese government and the military. Historically, political commissars date from the French Revolution, where anti-revolutionary elements were sought out and destroyed. In China, the military follows the rule that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has absolute control over the armed forces. The CCP and the State created two Central Military Commissions (CMC), respectively. The CCP CMC is the true powerholder; the State CMC is a figurehead shadow of the CCP CMC, and is usually composed of identical personnel. Every five years, during the CCP Congress, new members to the CCP CMC are named. Afterward, the National People’s Congress names the same people to the State CMC.
Members of the Chinese are expected to absolutely conform to the tenets of the CCP. To that end, a hierarchical system of political organizations and commissars was established down to the divisional level. The commissars make sure there is no deviance from the party line on the part of any military branch. This ensures that the CCP has administrative control of the military.
The current Director of the General Political Department is General Li Jinai. He was born in July 1942 in the Tengzshou, Shandong province. He became a card-carrying communist in May 1965 when he joined the CCP. He joined the army at the end of 1967. General Jinai is a graduate of the Harbin Institute of Technology, where he received a degree in Engineering Mechanics in 1966.
General Jinai rose through the ranks in the General Political Department starting in 1985, and by 1990 was the Deputy Director. He became a deputy political commissar, and then a full commissar, while serving on the State Commission of Science and Technology for National Defense Industry from 1992 to 1998. He was elevated to become the party vice-secretary of the General Armament Department, and then in 2002 became the department’s director and a member of the CCP CMC. In 2003 he also joined the State CMC. Then in 2004, General Jinai was appointed director of the General Political Department. He has been an alternate or regular member of the 14th through 17th Chinese Central Committees.
The General Political Department maintains the military’s internal prison system. The International Liaison Department within the GPD is responsible for preparing political and economic information for the GPD. It performs psych ops on foreign militaries and tries to undermine the Taiwan army. It are also engaged in so-called “counter-espionage” in Hong Kong, keeping an eye on public and private institutions there.