Amid India-China border tension, Xi Jinping promotes border commander to rank of general

Beijing, July 6: Amid the prolonged India-China border conflict, Chinese President Xi Jinping promoted four senior military officers including the commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) western theatre command (WTC) ground forces to the rank of general.

 

 

It should be noted that the WTC is in charge of handling the disputed Sino-India border and is China’s largest theatre command. Commander of the PLA’s WTC Xu Qiling, 59, was among the four to have been promoted as general, Xinhua news agency reported. He reports to Gen Zhang Xudong, the overall head of the WTC.

 

"Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), has promoted four senior military officers to the rank of general, the highest rank for officers in active service in China,” the Xinhua report said. Xi presented certificates of the orders he signed to them at a ceremony held by the CMC in Beijing on Monday.

 

 

The promotion of Xu as general comes in the backdrop of the ongoing military tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. It also comes ahead of the next round of military talks between India and China to resolve the border tension.

 

Last year in June 2020, a lieutenant general, Xu was appointed as the new commander of PLA’s ground forces that was days ahead of the deadly Galwan Valley clash in which both Indian and Chinese soldiers were killed. The new appointment had come at a time when Chinese and Indian forces were already locked in a border standoff for weeks.

 

 

Xu, a former ground force commander of the Eastern Theatre Command, swapped posts with his counterpart He Weidong in the WTC, in-charge of the disputed border areas in the Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions.