By Bo Zhiyue
There are some oddities in the most recent round of PLA promotions.
On July 31, one day after Guo Boxiong, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and Politburo member, was expelled from the Party and handed over for a court martial, the Central Military Commission held a ceremony awarding 10 military officers the rank of full general.
The 10 generals are widely distributed among different units of the People’s Liberation Army. General Wang Guanzhong is a deputy chief of staff; General Yin Fanglong is a deputy director of the General Political Department; Admiral Miao Hua is political commissar of the PLA Navy; General Zhang Shibo is president of the National Defense University; General Song Puxuan is commander of the Beijing Military Region; General Liu Yuejun is commander of the Lanzhou Military Region; General Zhao Zongqi is commander of the Jinan Military Region; General Zheng Weiping is political commissar of the Nanjing Military Region; General Li Zuocheng is commander of the Chengdu Military Region; and General Wang Ning is commander of the People’s Armed Police.
However, not all of them have met the conventional criteria for promotion to the rank of full general. In the Regulations on the Military Ranks of Officers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the legal document regarding the promotions and demotions of the PLA officers, there are no specific requirements for the promotion to the rank of full general. According to the first item of Article 17, officers at the rank of senior colonel and above are promoted based on “their positions, virtues and talents, and contributions to the national defense construction.” But the convention has been that a candidate for promotion to the rank of full general should have been a lieutenant general for four years and a chief leader of military region rank for two years.
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