Close Xi Jinping ally Zhang Youxia, 72, set for bigger PLA command role

Three PLA generals over 68 missing from Central Committee roster, signalling exit from top military decision-making body in line with retirement norms
Exception made for Zhang Youxia, who stays on despite being well past 68 and is set to become first vice-chair of Central Military Commission

China’s 20th Party Congress

Jack LauandCyril Ip

Published: 6:00am, 23 Oct 2022

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General Zhang Youxia, who has combat experience but is well past the unofficial retirement age in China’s Communist Party, is set to become the first vice-chairman of the country’s top military decision-making body, the list of new Central Committee members indicates.

While the 205 members of the committee were formally voted in by about 2,000 delegates from across China on the last day of the 20th party congress, the line-up is likely to have been decided in advance.

The names missing from the list offer clues on who is likely to step down from the seven-strong Central Military Commission (CMC) on Sunday, given that party norms require CMC members to also sit on the Central Committee.

General Zhang Youxia has a strong advocate of President Xi Jinping’s integration of military and civilian projects. Photo: SCMP

The change of guard was largely in line with expectations, going by unwritten party rules requiring top officials to retire by age 68.

Vice-chairman General Xu Qiliang, Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe and Joint Staff Department chief General Li Zuocheng have all reached 68 and are absent from the list of new Central Committee members.

Only General Miao Hua, chief of the CMC’s Political Work Department, and General Zhang Shengmin, head of military discipline, are still on the list. Both are under 68.

However, an exception has been made for Zhang Youxia, who turned 72 in July but still retains his seat in the Central Committee. Zhang is currently the second vice-chairman of the CMC, which is headed by President Xi Jinping and oversees the 2-million-strong People’s Liberation Army.

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By staying on the committee, Zhang is likely to succeed Xu Qiliang as the CMC first vice-chairman.

Zhang is widely viewed as a close ally and “sworn brother” of Xi. His father, General Zhang Zongxun, was the PLA’s head of logistics in the 1970s. Three decades earlier, in 1947, he was commander of the PLA’s Northwest Army Corps when Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, was its political commissar.

Zhang Youxia joined the military at 18 and was assigned to the 14th Group Army, based in Kunming, Yunnan province. He became a company commander during the Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979 while still in his 20s.

During Xi’s first five-year term, Zhang oversaw the PLA’s General Armaments Department, which includes China’s lunar exploration and manned space projects. He has also been a strong advocate of Xi’s integration of military and civilian projects, which is part of the president’s wider military reforms.

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Zhang Youxia is instrumental to Xi’s military reform as he is well-respected across all five service branches and command centres, according to Hong Kong-based military observer Liang Guoliang.

Given that many of Xi’s military reforms were still in critical stages of completion, it “makes a lot of sense” for Zhang to stay for one more term, Liang said.

As many as 14 new military officials are on the 20th Central Committee, which will steer the country for the next five years.

The youngest among them is 55-year-old General Chang Dingqiu, who succeeded Ding Laihang as the PLA Air Force commander in September last year.

The others include Wang Haijiang, 59, head of the Western Theatre Command since August last year; Lin Xiangyang, 58, named commander of the Eastern Theatre Command in January; Wang Xiubin, also 58, in charge of the Southern Theatre Command since June 2021; and Li Qiaoming, 61, former chief of the Northern Theatre Command.

Also on the list is General Liu Zhenli, former commander of the PLA ground force. A news report by state broadcaster CCTV earlier this month showed him at a meeting wearing an arm badge of the CMC Joint Staff Department – the PLA’s top command organ.

A person close to the PLA told the Post on condition of anonymity that Liu was likely to replace Li Zuocheng as head of the department, as Li is set to retire.

Liu’s appointment would be in line with PLA tradition, which favours generals with combat experience and those from the ground force.

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Liu joined the PLA in 1983 and spent decades in the former Beijing Military Region covering northern China. He fought in the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict in the 1980s, for which he received a first-class merit award.

Xi has chaired the CMC since coming to power in 2012 and is expected to hold on to the position if he is confirmed for an unprecedented third term as party leader.

The party chief has been in control of the military since former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s political reforms in the 1980s.

Additional reporting by William Zheng