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Oliver Chou

The two new members of the top PLA command have been put into senior positions as part of a drive to rejuvenate an ageing military leadership.

 Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, each promoted to full general last Wednesday, are now respectively Executive Chief of the General Staff and Executive Deputy Director of the General Political Department.

 They were named new members of the elite Central Military Commission on September 22 at the Fourth Plenum of the 15th Central Committee.

 Analysts said their elevated status suggested they were being groomed to become chief of the general staff and chief commissar.

 General Xu's new position, formerly held by General Wang Ruilin, suggested 56-year-old General Xu had replaced General Wang, who will turn 70 in December. No announcement has been made regarding arrangements for General Wang to step down.

 General Xu and the department's director-general, General Yu Yongbo, 68, come from the same home town of Fuxian, Liaoning province.

 General Xu was General Yu's assistant in 1992 before becoming a vice-director of the department from 1993 to 1996, when he was transferred to the Jinan regional command as political commissar.

 General Guo, 57, worked for two years as a group army commander under the incumbent Chief of the General Staff, General Fu Quanyou, when the latter was Lanzhou regional commander from 1990 to 1992.

 Analysts said that period, which included the break-up of the Soviet Union, had been extremely trying for the Lanzhou region.

 The plenary session also appointed Vice-President Hu Jintao as a commission vice-chairman.

 In its report of last week's promotion ceremony, the Liberation Army Daily listed Mr Hu ahead of the other two vice-chairmen, generals Zhang Wannian and Chi Haotian, suggesting Mr Hu was ranked highest of the three.

 Mr Hu attended his first military function on Wednesday when he met a visiting army delegation from Mali.

 Analysts said Mr Hu's new military portfolio sealed his role as successor to President Jiang Zemin as the new party, state and PLA leader at the 16th Party Congress in 2002.



New generals rejuvenate PLA command