PLA promotes three officers to top posts

The People’s Liberation Army promoted three senior officers to top-ranking posts in the past two weeks, making them candidates to the Central Military Commission, the nation’s highest military authority.

General Li Zuocheng, 63, was named chief of staff at the PLA Joint Staff Department. General Han Weiguo, 61, became Li’s successor as commander of the PLA Ground Force while Lieutenant General Ding Laihang, 59, was appointed head of the PLA Air Force.

Details about the appointments remain as the military new unknown does not publish information about its personnel changes.

The three major branches of the PLA — the Ground Force, Navy and Air Force — all have new chiefs. In January, Vice-Admiral Shen Jinlong, 60, replaced Admiral Wu Shengli as the Navy’s top officer.

The promotions likely raise the officers’ chances of earning a seat on the Central Military Commission, which is expected to go through a major reshuffle in October. The commission now has 11 members, with President Xi Jinping as its chairman.

Li, born in October 1953, joined the PLA Ground Force in 1970. He became nationally known in 1979 after he led his company to victory in a fierce battle that lasted 26 days during Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts that year. Li later was awarded the title of Combat Hero for his command of the company and having remained at the front line despite multiple injuries.

In 2013, he was named chief of the former Chengdu Military Command. Two years later, he was made a general and appointed as the first commander of the PLA Ground Force Headquarters established at the end of 2015.

Han, his successor, was commander of the former 12th Group Army, deputy chief of the former Beijing Military Command and commander of the Central Theater Command. He has a postgraduate degree in joint operations command from the PLA National Defense University.

Ding, the new Air Force commander, started as a fighter jet pilot. His early posts included commander of a flight training base and chief of staff at a combined aviation corps. In 2007, he was named president of the PLA Air Force Command College, and he became aviation force commander at the former Shenyang Military Command in 2012 and at the Northern Theater Command in 2016.

A researcher on personnel affairs at a PLA institute who asked not to be identified said the new commanders have experience in front-line units, as well as a good academic background and profound knowledge in military theory.