A highly-educated expert in Russian, eastern European and Central Asian affairs has been named the head of China's military intelligence, state media reported.
Major General Chen Youyi's first job in his new capacity as the People's Liberation Army's intelligence chief was accompanying General Ma Xiaotian, the PLA's deputy chief of general staff, in a meeting with visiting United States Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy early last month, Xinhua reported.
Chen, 58, studied international politics, gaining a masters degree at National Defence University followed by a doctorate at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies in 1995.
He was promoted to major general in July 2010, when he was the deputy head of military intelligence.
Terence Yeung, an expert in eastern Europe and Central Asia at Hong Kong Baptist University, said Chen's familiarity with security and anti-terrorism issues in Central Asia, next to restive Xinjiang, could be one reason for his promotion.
A retired PLA major general, who refused to be named, said yesterday that despite Chen's specialisation in Russian, eastern European and Central Asian affairs, he could also handle relations with Western countries with ease. 'Xiong Guangkai - a former chief of military intelligence - worked as a military diplomat in Germany for years, despite the fact that he studied English,' he said, adding that promoting well-educated officers to leading posts in the PLA had become a trend.
