Abstract: A very important historical link has been absent in the current academic discussion of the administrative subcontract system in contemporary China and its historical roots in the imperial period: military subcontract. China's military subcontract system is not only different from the military contracting and the modern military bureaucracy in Western Europe, but also different from the party-military and central-local governmental relations in the Soviet Union. Military subcontracting is an organizational form that emerged during the Sino-Japanese War and the Liberation War when the CCP took control in its rural Soviet base areas. It is embedded in a superior-subordinate relationship between the party and the military under the overall authority of the CCP Central Committee. On the one hand, the unified leadership regime is established at the central level. On the other, at the military division and subdivision levels, the military subcontract system is put into operation in three aspects: the discretion of military decision making by divisions and subdivisions, the financial self-sufficiency and the relative autonomy of management at local levels with emphasis on military results and personalized responsibility. The system effectively solves the tension between mobilization and control, centralization and decentralization. It is recognized as an important avenue to develop the military and political capacity of modern political parties in partially controlled territories under a divided state. It prepares for the construction of a comprehensive state power after 1949. The military subcontract system is not only the pioneer but also the kernel of the administrative subcontract system in modern China. Whether it is to explore the effectiveness of the administrative subcontract system, or to correct its shortcomings, an in-depth understanding of the military subcontract system is unavoidable.

Key words: military subcontract, administrative subcontract, base areas, unifying and dispersing, partial administration