Tense times call for battle-tested Chinese commanders, analysts say
2017-08-28 09:04:13 source：South China Morning Post
August 27, 2017
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.
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