China’s military modernisation continues with new commanders’ swift promotions

Name: Explained: the history of China’s territorial disputes
Uploaded: 2021-07-06T13:24:45.000Z
Duration: 6 min 24 s
Description: Explained: the history of China’s territorial disputes

Quartet promoted to lead commands and branches gain rank less than two years after previous promotions, in break with tradition

Western and southern theatre commands, ground force and strategic support force have new commanders

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, poses with military officials including the four promoted senior officers. Photo: Xinhua

Minnie Chan

Published: 9:24pm, 6 Jul 2021Updated: 10:33pm, 6 Jul 2021

The Chinese military has promoted four senior officials as the country’s western and southern theatre commands, ground force and strategic support force gained new commanders.

The promotions mean half of the 10 top People’s Liberation Army (PLA) commanders, covering the five theatre commands and branches, are aged 60 or younger, in what military observers saw as reflecting the ongoing military reform, which highlights that military officers’ positions should be consistent with their ranks.

One of the generals whose promotion was revealed on Monday by state broadcaster China Central Television was Xu Qiling, 59, chief of the Western Theatre Command, which oversees areas around China’s shared border with India in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions.

Xu’s promotion came a little over a year after a bloody skirmish between his theatre and the Indian military in the Himalayas, in which 20 Indian troops and four PLA soldiers were killed.

06:24

Explained: the history of China’s territorial disputes

That clash, the first deadly incident at the Himalayan border in 45 years, occurred two months after Xu swapped posts with He Weidong, 64, who is now chief of the Eastern Theatre Command, covering the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea.

Xu has experience with four of the PLA’s five theatre commands. He was also chief of staff at the former 54th Army Corps, an elite PLA fighting force known for its involvement in the crackdown on a Tibetan uprising in 1959 and the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x