The recent promotion of 'Young Turks' within the PLA indicates the military is preparing for a transition of power at the 16th Communist Party Congress in the autumn, analysts say.
Major-General Liu Yazhou, a son-in-law of late president Li Xiannian, has become the political commissar of the air force in Chengdu Military Region, the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po reported yesterday.
General Liu, 49, is envisaged as a prominent Young-Turk figure within the PLA, the paper said.
A former director of the political department under the Beijing Military Region before his reported promotion, General Liu is a fluent English speaker and was previously a visiting scholar at Stanford University. His wife, Li Xiaolin, is also a US expert.
The newspaper said General Liu had visited the US and Europe. It even claimed he had toured Taiwan, but not in his official capacity as a PLA general.
Reports from Taiwan quoting intelligence sources said General Liu paid a key role in facilitating South Korea's switch of diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 1992, but his visit to the island could not be independently confirmed.