PLA’s New Leadership Appointments to Focus on the Taiwan Strait and Loyalty: Experts

(L–R) Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping gives a military flag to Wei Fenghe, commander of the Rocket Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), and Wang Jiasheng, political commissar of the Rocket Force, in Beijing on Dec. 31, 2015. Li Gang/Xinhua via AP

In the 20th rubber-stamp legislature to be held in China on Oct. 16, the regime will recompose its military leadership to focus on regional military coercion in the Taiwan Strait and loyalty said China experts.

Xi Jinping, the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), increased his control over the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) through military reform and using anti-corruption campaigns to imprison and execute those who support an opposing political faction. The PLA is the military of the CCP and not the Chinese military.

Over the years, Xi personally directed the appointments of members of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the command authority of the armed forces.

In the upcoming national meeting, Xi is expected to continue a third five-year term as the leader of both the Party and the CMC.

A younger generation of CMC commanders who gained experience in the Taiwan Strait Crisis in the mid-1990s are expected to replace aging senior commanders.

Aging Military Commanders

Four of the six executive members of the CMC have reached the retirement age of 68.

Both Vice Chairmen Xu Qiliang and Zhang Youxia are aged 72; Wei Fenghe the PLA Rocket Force commander is 68; and Li Zuocheng the Joint Staff Department chief is 69.

That leaves only two members likely to remain: Political Work Department Director Miao Hua aged 66; and Discipline Inspection Commission Director Zhang Shengmin aged 64.

Xi the chairman of the CMC is 69 years old.

In 2014, Xi promoted Miao to political commissar of the PLA Navy and subsequently appointed him the director of the Political Work Department in 2017.

Miao spent 36 years in the 31st Army stationed in Fujian Province where Xi had a political career for 17 years.

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers march next to the entrance to the Forbidden City (L) in Beijing on May 22, 2020. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

Commanders From Fujian

An overseas Chinese media controlled by the CCP called Sing Tao Daily said in September that Miao and General He Weidong are likely to become the new vice chairs of CMC.

The 65-year-old He was the commander of the Eastern Theater Command from 2019 to 2022. According to Sing Tao’s report, He grew up in Fujian and used to serve as the chief of staff and deputy commander of the 31st Army in Fujian.

“A major reorganization of the CMC is inevitable,” said Cheng-fung Lu, associate professor of National Quemoy University, to the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Oct. 3.

In an effort to break through the first island chain, promotion of commanders from Fujian and the southeast coastal region would be expected, said Lu.

Li Cheng-Hsiu, a military expert and associate researcher at the National Policy Foundation of the Republic of China (Taiwan), agreed.

“The CCP is most likely to launch its armed forces activities towards Taiwan or in the South China Sea,” he said, adding, the PLA needs commanders familiar with those areas.

‘Loyalty to Xi and His Agenda’

Chi Le-yi, a senior military analyst in Taiwan, does not believe Xi would have a geographical preference.

“For example, Lin Xiangyang, the incumbent commander of the Eastern Theater Command, used to be the commander of the Northern Theater Command,” said Chi.

He does not believe Xi would prefer any disproportionate geographic arrangement in the CMC. He said, “It’s a taboo for Xi. It took him a great effort to eliminate the powerful Guo Boxiong and his influence in the northwest.”

Former Central Military Commission vice chair General Guo Boxiong in Beijing on March 9, 2012. Guo was sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese military court on July 25, 2016. Ng Han Guan/AP Photo

Guo, once a commander of the Lanzhou Military Region which is now the Western Theater Command, retired as the vice chairman of CMC in 2013. He was expelled from the Party in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison in 2016 as a result of Xi’s anti-corruption drive.

Joel Wuthnow, the senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the National Defense University, in “Gray Dragons: Assessing China’s Senior Military Leadership” (pdf), argued that “Senior PLA leaders are drawn relatively equally from the 5 theater commands and 13 group armies. Even though it is responsible for Taiwan, the Eastern Theater Command cannot be described as a ‘cradle of the generals.’”

He said, all PLA officers “must have enough political acumen to demonstrate loyalty to Xi and his agenda.”

Haizhong Ning and Luo Ya contributed to this report.