On March 5, 2024, military delegates attending the CCP National People's Congress arrived outside the Great Hall of the People.(online screenshot)
October 28, 2024– Following a call to “rectify” the practice of referring to military personnel as “Big Boss” and “Second Boss,” the CCP’s military newspaper has published another article criticizing the informal and outdated ways that officers and soldiers address each other, such as calling the leader’s secretary “Big Secretary,” urging senior generals to lead in correcting this. The article from the military newspaper has once again attracted mockery from netizens.
According to an October 27 article in the CCP’s military newspaper, the author says that while visiting grassroots units, it is common to hear that among soldiers, regardless of whether a veteran is a squad leader or not, new recruits still call him “Squad Leader”; some soldiers call the leader’s secretary “Big Secretary,” while staff members in higher-level organizations are called “Senior Consultant,” and so on.
The article mentions further issues, such as using primary position titles for deputies, like calling the deputy regiment commander the regiment commander, and using real position titles for honorary ones, like calling a regiment-level staff officer a “Director.” Other issues include arbitrarily shortening full titles, like calling “Director Wang” simply “Wang,” “Captain Lin” as “Lin,” and casually dropping syllables, such as calling a commander “Commander” and an assistant “Assistant.” There is also a strong sense of gang culture, like calling leaders “Big Boss” or “Boss” and colleagues “Bros” or “Brothers.”
The author of the article believes these irregular forms of address inflate the recipient's standing, create a sense of kinship, and use abbreviations or nicknames to show closeness, which is neither solemn nor serious.
The article further claims that the military is a so-called highly centralized and unified armed group, and standardized titles are necessary for maintaining and enhancing combat effectiveness. Leaders must set an example by taking the lead in rectifying this, it said.
The article from the CCP’s military newspaper sparked ridicule from netizens on overseas social media:
“It should be ‘servant.’”
“The soldiers truly don’t understand the system—they should call [Defense Minister Dong Jun] the Minister of War, Lord Dong.”
“Characteristics of a rule-by-man society: laws are like toilet paper, everything runs on relationships.”
“Officials should be called ‘masters,’ and secretaries ‘advisors’—after all, they’re all lords.”
“If not ‘Big Secretary,’ what then? ‘Head Secretary?’”
“Should we call them ‘Little Secretary’?”
“They’re trying every possible way to blend in with the people.”
“What kind of signal is this?”
“It’s just like Hu Xijin reminding people within the system to get rich quietly and not say too much.”
Earlier, on July 15, the CCP’s military newspaper published an article calling for “rectification” of using terms like “Big Boss” and “Second Boss” in the military, which similarly attracted ridicule from netizens.
On the overseas X platform, some netizens mocked this practice in the CCP military, seeing the military newspaper's report as reflecting the military's fear of “factionalism” undermining Xi Jinping’s authority:
“There is only one ‘Big Boss.’”
“Prevent factionalism within the CCP’s party army!”
“Accidentally exposed their bandit nature.”
“Only Xi Jinping can be called ‘Big Boss.’”
According to commentator Du Zheng in Shangbao, the CCP military has long had cliques vying for power and influence. Currently, individuals from Fujian, Shandong, Henan, and Shaanxi provinces are relatively more numerous in the CCP military high command, forming factions.
Editor: Lin Congwen
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