Want China Times
Staff Reporter
August 7, 2015
A PLA honor guard parade in August 2014. (File photo/CNS)
The routine personnel reshuffle of the People’s Liberation Army at the end of July mostly involves with political officers, reports Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po. The reshuffle also includes cross-military branch appointments and appointment of top-ranking officials to military scientific research institutes.
Most of the vice chiefs of major military regions in their 70s will retire after the reshuffle and they will be replaced by those in their 60s. The Beijing Youth Daily said 90% of PLA generals are in their 50s. The youngest is 51-year-old Liu Zhenli, former head of the 38th Army Group, who has been promoted to chief of staff of the Chinese People’s Armed Police. He was the commander of the Shanghai Security Organization joint military exercise Peace Mission 2014 involving China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The PLA has reassigned officials to military branches different to their original command to diversify their training to adapt different command systems. The most noticeable reassignment is the former PLA Navy North Sea Fleet political commissar Bai Wenqi, who has been moved to Jinan Military Region Air Force. Kang Fei has appointed Bai’s successor.
The cross-branch reassignment is in line with the military’s white paper released in May, which said the PLA will establish a joint operation command institute and a cross-regional joint operation command mechanism.
Around 70% of officials involving in the reshuffle are political commissars or the heads of political departments. Former Chengdu Military Region deputy political commissar Zhang Shuguo has been made the head of the Beijing Military Region’s political department. His former position has been taken over by Nanjing Military Region deputy political commissar Bai Lu.
Top cadres involved in the reshuffle are former People’s Armed Police chief of staff Niu Zhizhong, who has been promoted to the force’s deputy commanding officer. Zheng He, former head of the Army General Staff Department’s military education and training department, has been reassigned to deputy commanding officer of the Chengdu Military Region. Former North Sea Fleet chief of staff Wang Hai has become the Navy’s deputy commanding officer. Former PLA National Defence University scientific research department head Qin Tian has become the vice dean of the PLA Military Science Academy.
