A tech-savvy, 48-year-old rising star in the mainland military has been promoted to head a prominent college affiliated with the People's Liberation Army in the latest personnel reshuffle.
Major General Yang Xuejun was made president of the National University of Defence Technology in Changsha this week, staff at the university said.
Zhou Sheng , a political official with the university's optoelectronic science and engineering school, said: 'Yang, originally the deputy head of our school, was formally elevated as our president on Monday. Born in 1963, he is a very young leader.'
Yang's promotion was confirmed by two of the teaching staff at the university.
Other recent personnel changes within the PLA have seen the chief of staff of the Nanjing military region, Lieutenant General Cai Yingting, 57, become the PLA's deputy chief of general staff, while the deputy political commissar of the Shenyang military region, Lieutenant General Wang Hongyao, 60, became political commissar of the General Armament Department.
Cai was once the secretary of Zhang Wannian , a former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Both Cai and Wang are regarded as potential contenders for a seat on the commission, the army's top decision-making body, when it is restructured at the Communist Party's 18th congress, scheduled to be held in autumn next year.