PLA gets two new generals to mark upcoming anniversary
President Xi Jinping promotes Yi Xiaoguang and Zhu Fuxi ahead of August 1st birthday for army
Two senior military officers were promoted to full general on Friday, two days before the anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Liberation Army.
Yi Xiaoguang, a deputy chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department, and Zhu Fuxi, political commissar with the Western Theatre Command, were promoted to general by President Xi Jinping, who also heads the powerful Central Military Commission.
They were the first promotions to general since a major restructuring effort that began late last year, aimed at modernising the world’s largest standing army.
It is common for the Central Military Commission to promote generals around August 1st, the day the PLA was founded in 1927.
Yi, 58, joined the General Staff Department since 2012. That department no longer exists, having been reorganised under the Joint Staff Department in February.