Leaders are replaced in naval shake-up
Military analysts link the reshuffle to a submarine accident in which 70 died
The mainland's top naval leaders have been replaced in a military leadership shake-up that Chinese military analysts speculate could be the result of the recent submarine accident that claimed 70 lives.
Xinhua reported yesterday that naval commander Admiral Shi Yunsheng and naval political commissar Admiral Yang Huaiqing had been removed from their posts.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Central Military Commission have replaced the two men with Vice-Admiral Zhang Dingfa as the new commander and Vice-Admiral Hu Yanlin as the new commissar.
The report provided no further details about the shake-up.
Admirals Shi and Yang were appointed by former president and current Central Military Commission chairman Jiang Zemin in 1996 and 1995 respectively.
Vice-Admiral Zhang becomes the navy's top commander after serving less than a year as the director of the Academy of Military Science - an appointment that came after the 16th Communist Party Congress last November. He was also selected as an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party at the November session.
Given the relatively long service of Admirals Shi and Yang, military experts were not surprised by their removal.
However, they believe the changes may have been hastened by the recent submarine accident.
Six weeks ago, Xinhua announced that a Ming Class submarine had lost its crew of 70, but did not state the date or the exact cause of the deaths.
'I personally would not be surprised if this leadership move is tied to the submarine accident,'' said Bernard Cole, a Chinese naval expert at the US National Defence University
'The PLA had enough time to investigate and probably decided that somebody had to be fired.'
James Mulvenon, of the US-based Rand Corporation, said the PLA had a tradition of removing top officers in the aftermath of accidents.
He noted that General Cao Shuangming, former commander of the air force, was fired in 1994 after a training crash of a Russian made Su-27 fighter.
But analysts are also unsure if the new appointments reflect a potential tug of war between Mr Jiang and President Hu Jintao, who serves as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. In recent months, there have been reports of increased tension between the two men.
They note it was Mr Jiang who appointed Vice-Admiral Zhang to his previous job at the Academy of Military Science.
Professor Cole said: 'For Zhang to get the top position means that he has the confidence of both Jiang and Hu.'
