China Adjusts Martial Law Rules in Preparation For War: Experts

Chinese military officers are pictured marching down the steps of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Sept. 27, 2022. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

The Chinese communist regime’s rubber stamp People’s National Congress passed a resolution on Feb. 24 to adjust the application of some provisions of Criminal Procedure Law for the military during wartime. China experts believe the move shows that the regime is preparing for war and the imposition of martial law.

According to the regime’s official mouthpiece, Xinhua, the provisions include those relating to jurisdiction, defense, investigation, prosecution, trial, and enforcement. The adjustments took effect on Feb. 25, and the specifics are to be set out by China’s ruling Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Military Commission.

Li Zhengxiu, a military expert at Taiwan’s National Policy Research Foundation, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 27 that the move indicates the Chinese regime is likely preparing for military conflicts with other countries, such as an invasion of Taiwan. If war were to break out, there would be situations where wartime legal proceedings would have to apply.

The Epoch Times columnist Zhou Xiaohui wrote an article on Feb. 26 that shared a similar view. Zhou wrote that “Beijing is preparing to launch a war at a point in the near future, and mostly likely a war in the Taiwan Strait.”

He pointed out that military criminal proceedings punish crimes committed by military personnel, and that the new adjustments aimed at “crimes of a military nature” that might pose a threat to the CCP.

Chinese military delegates leave the closing session of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, at The Great Hall of the People on October 22, 2022 in Beijing, China. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Zhou noted that the CCP top circle can’t rule out the occurrence of “defection and desertion“ in the military during wartime. “After all, the dissent and disloyalty in the military against the CCP head have not been eliminated since the Party’s 20th National Congress last year,” he said. “The new adjustments are for the prevention of the ‘betrayal’ of military personnel in wartime and the leaking of the CCP’s confidential military intelligence—and to prepare in advance for the disposal of captured personnel in war.”

Yao Cheng, a former Chinese navy lieutenant colonel, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 27 that the CCP’s adjustments to “Criminal Procedure Law” for the military application during wartime not only aimed at Taiwan, but was simultaneously its preparation to impose martial law in China. “If it needs to, it will have a legal basis for declaring martial law, because there are many domestic conflicts, and the CCP needs its military to control the domestic situation and maintain its regime.”

Yao added that adjustment of the criminal law for the military during wartime would put a lot of pressure on the People’s Liberation Army. “Actually, the military and Xi Jinping are not of one mind.”

Series of Actions to Prepare for War

The move is the latest in a series of actions taken by the CCP that are related to the military and its preparation for war.

Various provinces and cities in China have set up national defense mobilization offices one after another to “strengthen national defense mobilization and reserve force building,” since the CCP’s 20th National Congress proposed to “improve the national defense mobilization system” last October.

Most recently, Shanghai opened a National Defense Mobilization Office on Feb. 20.

Fujian Province on the southeast coast of China—which faces Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait—set up a provincial-level National Defense Mobilization Office on Dec. 15, 2022, which was among the first in the country. In just two months since the CCP’s 20th National Congress last year, 9 district cities and 83 counties in Fujian Province had set up national defense mobilization offices.

The CCP’s new military reserve personnel law, which will take effect on Mar. 1, raises the upper age limits for military reservists.

Ning Haizhong and Luo Ya contributed to this report.