PLA hawk Ma Xiaotian flying ever higher
Ma Xioatian, new commander of the PLA’s air force and outspoken as the military’s foreign affairs chief, has been a rising star since his 20s
The People's Liberation Army's new air force commander is an outspoken officer known for his hawkish comments on China's territorial disputes in the East and South China seas.
General Ma Xiaotian, 63, who handled the PLA's foreign affairs as its deputy chief of general staff for the past five years, is rare among incumbent senior PLA officers in daring to express a militant view.
In May, China and the Philippines were locked in a stand-off over the South China Sea's Scarborough Shoal - known as Huangyan Island to China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines. Ma told the Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV "the South China Sea issue is none of the United States' business; it's just [territorial] disputes between China and its neighbouring countries".
He also said "the PLA is able to protect China's maritime territories", but "at the moment China is not preparing to resort to military means - that would be the very last option".
At the annual intergovernmental security forum in 2010, known as the Shangri-La dialogue, Ma told the US' Pacific commander, Admiral Robert Willard, China would not accept any surveillance by US ships and planes in the South and East China seas, and that Washington's arms sales to Taiwan were "creating obstacles" for Sino-US military-to-military exchanges.
He also reiterated concerns about cold-war-era alliances and called for more equal, trusting relationships - a dig at Washington's traditional approach.