Chinese general’s new job suggests army revamp finished
Reforms led by President Xi Jinping saw four headquarters replaced by 15 units
General Wang Guanzhong was officially confirmed by Beijing yesterday as being one of six deputy chiefs of the People’s Liberation Army’s newly established Joint Staff Department, suggesting a major reshuffle of the PLA kicked off by President Xi Jinping last year has finished.
A statement posted on the government’s website yesterday, referring to Wang by his new military title, said he had been appointed one of 22 members of the State Council’s National Energy Administration, which is headed by Premier Li Keqiang.
It was the first official government confirmation that Wang had been transferred from the General Staff Department, one of the PLA’s four former general headquarters, to the Joint Staff Department, one of 15 newly established units under the Central Military Commission.
The four former headquarters – General Staff, General Political, General Logistics and General Armaments – were described by the CMC, chaired by XI, as four independent kingdoms with excessive concentrations of power. They were all scrapped in the military overhaul, with their work and powers shared by the 15 new units.