Why is China's defense minister a soldier, wearing a military uniform? Why does the US Secretary of Defense wear a suit?

First of all, western governments emphasize literati government, so all positions are held by literati, and so is the Minister of National Defense. However, many western defense ministers are also elected from the military, and they are all temporarily retired defense ministers. When the government stepped down, they returned to active service and returned to the army.

After all, the defense minister is mainly responsible for the work of the army, and it is difficult for outsiders to carry out their work. There are jokes and even contradictions among innocent civilians and defense ministers. For example, the beautiful 37-year-old Czech defense minister dismissed three senior defense officials on his first day in office last year. Even the president was "surprised" by the female defense minister when interviewed by the media. He said: "I don't know the reason for taking this step. I don't understand, I don't understand. " As a result, the defense minister was removed from office after eight days in office.

Secondly, the responsibilities of the Secretary of Defense of China and the Secretary of Defense of the United States are different in some places.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense does not directly command the army, but is more responsible for formulating national defense policies, formulating national defense budgets, leading military scientific research and military logistics supply, and also responsible for foreign military negotiations, so the civilian personnel of the Ministry of National Defense are the main ones. The command of the army is under the responsibility of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose chairman is a soldier and directly obeys the command of the President (who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces).

At present, China's defense minister is more of a foreign ceremonial organization. The four headquarters of the People's Liberation Army (General Staff Department, General Political Department, General Armament Department and General Logistics Department) are mainly responsible for domestic troops and military operations, and the superior unit is the Central Military Commission.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the functions of the U.S. Department of Defense are more than the four headquarters and the three headquarters in China.

It is also interesting that the US Secretary of Defense is also the deputy commander of the three armed forces, with a higher rank than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while China's Secretary of Defense is the Vice Chairman of the Military Commission, with a higher rank than the Fourth Headquarters. Big position, no real power to say.

Finally, in fact, the western defense departments are not all civilian personnel, but also many military personnel. Some even have ministers who are literati, some are soldiers, and so is the United States. The Ministry of National Defense also has a large number of soldiers in uniform. Of course, the US Department of Defense is mainly a civilian.

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It doesn't matter whether the secretary of defense is a soldier or not. Etiquette is more important than military command to the defense ministers of China and the United States. The real commanders-in-chief of the two armies are the top leaders, while the top leaders of the two countries are civilian and do not wear military uniforms.

Are essentially the same. So don't worry about whether the Secretary of Defense is a soldier.