Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has appointed one of China’s few top generals with combat experience to a powerful military post, according to two people familiar with the matter.
General Li Zuocheng (李作成), 63, a veteran of the country’s brief and bloody 1979 war with Vietnam, was this week named chief of the Chinese Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, the people said, asking not to be identified because the announcement was internal.
Li replaced General Fang Fenghui (房峰輝), who last week hosted the highest-ranking US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, and is expected to receive another position, they said.
Li’s appointment to the post — created last year as part of China’s largest military overhaul in six decades — underscores Xi’s desire to turn the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a force “able to fight and win wars.”
China has not been directly involved in a major conflict since the border clash with Vietnam.
The promotion puts Li directly under the 11-member commission, which is led by Xi and is due for a reshuffle after an upcoming Chinese Communist Party congress.
Since 2002, only one of seven vice chairmen of the elite commission have had combat experience on his service record.
The department is a central component to Xi’s reform and oversees PLA’s operations, intelligence and training.
Fang’s meeting with Dunford suggests that Li will play a top liaison role as tensions rise between the world’s two largest economies.
The move is among several promotions ahead of the congress, in which Xi is to preside over the replacement of much of the country’s leadership from the military to provincial governments. The five-yearly gathering will shape the influence for years to come of a president already considered the country’s most powerful leader in a generation.
Li, who most recently led the PLA’s ground forces, received China’s highest military honor for his leadership of an infantry company during the war. His unit was credited with killing 294 Vietnamese combatants in less than four weeks, earning him a reputation as China’s “most feared war hero,” the Beijing Daily reported after a previous promotion.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique