The Political Officer in the modern PLA(Navy)
I’m in the process of reading the Science Fiction trilogy Three Body Problem. The books were written by a Chinese author and focus on (among other characters) the experience of a Chinese Navy (PLAN) Political Officer. The books and author appear to view the modern role of the Political Officer in a surprisingly uncritical and earnest way. Such a role in a Western Navy would be viewed with a mockery from the sailors, and contempt from the officers. I’ve read that a Politixal Officer subsumes the roles of senior enlisted along with smaller jobs, but that role in the West is earned through amassing enormous amounts of experience and competence in running the ship. The senior enlisted sailor derives their authority through this experience rather than simply their rank. Assuming that modern China is less ideologically focused on the tenets of Marxist Leninist thought and loyalty to the party, how does the modern PLAN establish the credibility of these Political Officers within the chain of command? Do they serve a meaningful role in improving combat effectiveness, or are they merely a check on the independence of the military? Or do the actual sailors and officers view them with all the expected contempt, but that contempt is just not accurately written into this fictional story?