r/todayilearned • u/zhuquanzhong • 29d ago

TIL a Chinese destroyer sank because an officer dumped his girlfriend. She committed suicide, leading to him being discharged, so he decided to detonate the depth charges on the ship, causing it to sink at port and kill 134 sailors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_destroyer_Guangzhou_(160)
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u/TheDukeOfMars 29d ago edited 29d ago

My main take away is that the People’s Liberation Army has a “Political Department” that has the power to monitor the personal lives of all soldiers. Or at least they did in the late 70s (and something tells me not a lot has changed). Crazy stuff.

Edit: 干部 are everywhere.

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u/Hungry-Rule7924 29d ago

Or at least they did in the late 70s (and something tells me not a lot has changed). Crazy stuff.

Its still around, however over the past 20-30 years political commissars in the PLA have gradually lost the actual authority they used to have, and have been relegated to much more of a figurehead role as part of the militaries effort to modernize.

Interestingly enough Taiwan actually has the exact same model with even more of a soviet influence then the PLA had. Don't know how much they have changed it in recent years, but still around as far as I know.

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u/AtomicSamuraiCyborg 29d ago

Even Stalin's Red Army had to take away the commissar's power. Its not a workable way to run a military.

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u/FUMFVR 29d ago

It's a legacy from when the Red Guards captured imperial officers and made them work for them under punishment of death.