The only grandson of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) has been promoted to the rank of major general in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), state media confirmed yesterday.
Reports have been circulating for months that military historian Mao Xinyu ( 毛新宇 ) had gained the rank, but officials had refused to confirm them, apparently to avoid suspicion of favoritism.
As reported last September, Mao, then 39, had become the youngest officer to reach major general rank in the army that was cofounded by his grandfather in 1927.
PHOTO: AFP
The newspaper Global Times, published by the Chinese Communist Party flagship People’s Daily, quoted Bao Guojun (包國俊), a spokesman for the Academy of Military Sciences where Mao works, as confirming the promotion.
“This is a natural elevation. Mao’s many achievements earned him the right to be promoted,” Bao said.
The report did not say exactly when the promotion took place.
The academy’s phone number is not listed in keeping with the deep secrecy surrounding the PLA, and requests for comment from the Defense Ministry were not immediately returned.
The Global Times report followed the appearance on the Internet of photos showing Mao wearing a major general’s single star on his shoulder boards during a visit last week to Sichuan Province.
Mao Xinyu is the son of Mao’s second son Mao Anqing (毛岸青), who died in 2007 at the age of 84. The younger Mao is a member of the main advisory body to the National People’s Congress and a fierce defender of his grandfather’s legacy.
Mao Zedong had a notoriously chaotic personal life, marrying four times and siring nine children, including a daughter by his last wife, Jiang Qing (江青). His second wife, Mao Xinyu’s grandmother, was executed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 1930.
While Mao Zedong remains venerated in China, his offspring have played little role in affairs of state. First son Mao Anying (毛岸英) was killed in action during the Korean War and Mao Anqing is believed to have suffered from mental illness for most of his adult life.
In recent years, Mao Xinyu has become best known for his considerable girth and striking resemblance to his famously pudgy grandfather.
Son Mao Dongdong (毛東東), Mao Zedong’s only great-grandson, was born on the 110th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s birthday in 2003.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RSS