Amid border standoff, Chinese Prez Xi appoints new General for PLA's Western Theatre Command

Beijing, Dec 21: Amid the India-China border standoff in eastern Ladakh, Chinese President Xi Jinping has appointed a new General as the Commander of the People's Liberation Army's Western Theatre Command which oversees the China-India border.

 

 

President Xi heads the Central Military Commission (CMC) which is the overall high-command of the two million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA). He has now appointed Gen. Zhang Xudong as the Commander of the Western Theatre Command. He has promoted four senior Chinese military and armed police officers and among them was Gen. Zhang, Commander of the Western Theatre Command of the PLA, a Chinese news agency reported on Friday.

 

The other officers who were promoted include Guo Puxiao, Political Commissar of the Logistic Support Department of the CMC; Li Wei, Political Commissar of the PLA Strategic Support Force, and Wang Chunning, Commander. These new appointments at the top of the PLA Western Command come in the midst of the standoff between the Chinese and Indian military in eastern Ladakh since May.

 

There is not much information about Gen. Zhang and especially his association with Western Theatre Command. However, it is known that he reportedly served mostly in other theatre commands of the PLA. He succeeds 65-year-old Gen. Zhao Zongqi who headed the Western Theatre Command during the 2017 Doklam standoff where the Indian Army stood up against the PLA's plan of laying a road close to the Indian border in an area claimed by Bhutan.

 

The current standoff also happened under the watch of Gen Zhao. It began in May after China dispatched thousands of troops which were mobilized for military exercises to eastern Ladakh borders, sparking a new round of tensions with India.

 

India and China have held several rounds of talks at the diplomatic and military-level to resolve the prolonged standoff. However, in order to hold talks for complete disengagement along Line of Actual Control (LAC), China has been very reluctant. The latest round took place on foreign ministry-level talks on December 18 where the two sides said that they have agreed to continue work towards ensuring complete disengagement of troops in all friction points along the LAC. The meeting also decided to hold the next round of military dialogue at an early date.