Place a close friend as number two and generals with combat experience in view of a hypothetical invasion of the island
Power in China rests with the Communist Party, but with the military. For this reason, the XX Congress, which has just put an end to the perpetuation of Xi Jinping as Secretary General, has renewed not only the main leadership bodies of the party, but also of the military. The leadership is the Central Military Commission, chaired by Xi himself. Of the seven members, three withdrew from this conclave and their replacement shows a clear interest in the Beijing regime’s main goal: Taiwan.
Reaching age 68, the retirement age for senior positions, but making Xi an exception for himself and his closest associates, his vice president, General Xu Qiliang, has left the Commission; Defense Minister Wei Fenghe; and the Chief of the General Staff, General Li Zuocheng.
General Zhang Youxia, a friend of Xi, has come in as first vice president, and He Weidong as second, who has been in charge of the Eastern Command since 2019, from which the military can see the nearby island of Taiwan and the South China Sea. At age 65, General He has extensive experience in Fujian Province, closest to Taiwan, and over the summer led maneuvers around the island in retaliation for the visit of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Taiwan. .
As military analysts note, his figure and his knowledge on the ground would be decisive in the event of a hypothetical invasion of Taiwan, which Xi Jinping calls for reunification during this “new era” with which he has christened his mandate. According to Song Zhongping, a Hong Kong expert quoted by the South China Morning Post newspaper, He Weidong’s rise shows that the People’s Liberation Army is “strengthening combat preparations for a military fight against Taiwan.”
To that end, Xi Jinping has also placed a man of the utmost confidence in the First Vice-Presidency of the Central Military Commission, General Zhang Youxia. As in his case to stay in power, he has even broken retirement age because he is 72 years old. But Zhang is like his “blood brother” because their parents, heroes of the communist revolution, served together under Mao during the civil war. While Zhang’s father was in command of China’s Northwestern Front, Xi’s father was his political commissar. Three decades later, both were purged during the “Cultural Revolution,” an ordeal that also marked their children for life.
Gene. Zhang Youxia, who has combat experience during the short-lived war against Vietnam in 1979, has taken on one of Xi’s primary goals: modernizing the military and developing manned space and reconnaissance missions. In order not to end up as the former Soviet Union, one of Xi Jinping’s obsessions, it has been proposed to modernize military strategy by 2027, not only in weapons and technology, but also in training and doctrine.
Also with combat experience, General Liu Zhenli, 58, joined the Military Commission and was awarded a medal for his participation in the Vietnam War. Considered a new-generation hero, he has led the army’s ground forces and emerges as another key figure in an eventual conquest of Taiwan.
Another member of the Military Commission who has not been replaced, Admiral Miao Hua, 66, also stands out for this mission. Not only was he born in Fujian Province, in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, but he has also been the political commissar of this important military region, where Commission Second Vice-President He Weidong has also served.
Likewise, General Zhang Shengmin, in charge of the missile arsenal and member of the Disciplinary Inspection Commission, which purged the military in Xi Jinping’s years to take out the allies of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, continues. In fact, the entire military leadership of the previous president has been wiped out by the anti-corruption campaign of the past decade.
Finally, General Li Shangfu, an aerospace engineer responsible for developing new weapons and sanctioned by the US in 2018 for buying fighter jets and missiles from Russia, is joining the Military Commission. If he becomes defense secretary, it will be necessary to see if the White House continues to maintain or lift the veto over him to have an interlocutor in the Chinese military, something that would be essential if Xi Jinping wants to conquer Taiwan. .
Source: La Verdad
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