Since the 1990s, China’s party-military relations have been influenced by several factors. These include generational change, regularization by implementing various rules and regulations, courting of the military by Jiang Zemin, strengthening of political doctrinization and personnel control, as well as military modernization and professionalization. The end result has been that while the military is still under the party’s control, the military has shifted its focus more on military issues rather than political issues, and its influence in politics has diminished. On the other hand, because of its new focus, PLA autonomy in military issues may have risen. Judging from the power arrangement of the 16th party congress held in November 2002, party control of the gun has not been institutionalized yet, because the new secretary general of the party is not concurrently the military’s highest commander.