Tense times call for battle-tested Chinese commanders, analysts say
General Li Zuocheng’s appointment to the military’s nerve centre comes as China faces geopolitical tests in the region
China has appointed a decorated war veteran to head its military nerve centre, suggesting President Xi Jinping’s preference to have battlefield-tested commanders in charge of military operations.
General Li Zuocheng, 63, who fought in the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese war and was awarded a first-class merit for his combat service, takes over from General Fang Fenghui as head of the Joint Staff Department. Fang played host to US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Joseph Dunford earlier this month.
Analysts said Li’s appointment underscored Beijing’s need for officers at the top with real combat experience to tackle geopolitical tension, and to counter the legacy of corruption left by the last administration’s top brass. But they also said the new job meant Li was unlikely to be promoted to be one of the vice-chairmen of the armed forces’ top Central Military Commission at the five-yearly Communist Party congress this autumn.
Li’s new role became public when the defence ministry issued a brief statement late on Saturday saying Li met Pakistani army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, as the Joint Staff Department chief.
The statement did not say what Fang’s next role would be but there has been speculation that he might have a new job.
Li, a Hunan native, has been seen as one of Xi’s favoured officers since he became head of the former Chengdu Military Region in 2013. He was promoted to full general in 2015 and appointed the commander of the newly created ground force last year.
