By: Christopher P. Cavas
WASHINGTON — The long-running term of Adm. Wu Shengli as commander of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) seems to be ending with his retirement, according to a report in a non-China-owned Hong Kong daily newspaper.
The new commander, according to an English translation of a Chinese-language report in the daily Ming Pao paper, is Vice Adm. Shen Jinlong, commander of the PLAN’s South Sea Fleet.
Like Wu, Shen, 60, is familiar to US Navy leaders, having commanded the Chinese Navy squadron that took part in Rim of the Pacific exercises out of Pearl Harbor in 2014. He also attended the International Seapower Symposium last September at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
According to an English translation of the Ming Pao article, Shen has served tours in command of a PLAN North Sea Fleet destroyer flotilla, the Navy’s Lushun Logistical Base, the Dalian Naval Academy and the Navy’s Command Academy. The article notes Shen became commander of the South Sea Fleet — one of China’s three main fleets — in December 2014.
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