The History of Military Awards of the Red Army of China

Abstract. The award system of the state is an important essential characteristic of the state, being, on the one hand, one of the symbols of the country, on the other hand, an incentive system, part of the institution of public administration. The study of a system of military awards is of great practical importance, it allows us to consider the genesis of the military mechanism and draw a conclusion about the maturity of military institutions of a country. The topic of the military awards of the PRC, as well as the entire award system of the country, has not often attracted the attention of both Russian and even Chinese scholars. Only in recent years, already under Xi Jingping, with the formation of a unified system of state awards, the topic of military orders and medals appeared in public discourse in China. Drawing on new sources and literature, considering the development of the award system as a prototype of the future award system of the PLA, we can understand and study the patterns on which the reform and modernization of the Chinese army is based today. The identification of shortcomings and errors in the creation of the military award system of the Chinese Red Army will make it possible to understand the difficulties that stand in the way of establishing a modern state system of awards of the PLA, among which one of the main ones is a certain inertia in the lack of due respect for orders and medals in the Chinese society.

Keywords: PRC, military awards, state awards, orders, medals, PLA

For citation: Semenov A.V., Semenov I.A. The History of Military Awards of the Red Army of China. Modern Oriental Studies. 2023; Volume 5 (1). (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24412/2686-9675-1-2023-109-121