By Bo Zhiyue
The number of top-ranked “princelings” in China’s military is steadily dropping.
The recent appointment of Lieutenant General Zhou Xiaozhou as deputy commander of the Chengdu Military Region has been widely regarded as a sign of the rise of princeling generals in Chinese politics.
The son of Lieutenant General Zhou Yibing, former commander of the Beijing Military Region (from November 1987 to April 1990), Zhou Xiaozhou, aged 58, began his military career in 1973 and worked in the 27th Army and 14th Army before his promotion to chief of staff in the Chengdu Military Region in 2012. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 2013 and appointed deputy commander of the Chengdu Military Region in December 2014.
One may also note that Lieutenant General Wang Ning, aged 59, the new commander of the People’s Armed Police, has also come from a military family. His father was an officer of the deputy army commander rank in the Nanjing Military Region; his uncle, General Gu Hui, was commander of the Nanjing Military Region in the 1990s; and his father-in-law, Lieutenant General Du Ping, was No. 7 political commissar of the same military region in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.
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