Cao Gangchuan

General Cao Gangchuan (2005)

Cao Gangchuan ( Chinese  曹刚川 , Pinyin Cáo Gāngchuān ; * December 1935 in Wugang , Pingdingshan , Henan Province ) is a Chinese general of the People's Liberation Army and a politician of the Communist Party of China (CCP), who among other things was a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party from 2002 to 2007 Was China's Minister of Defense between 2003 and 2008 .

Life

Cao Gangchuan joined the People's Liberation Army in 1954 and graduated from Nanjing No. 3 Artillery Weapons School and No. 1 Weapons Engineering School between 1954 and 1956. He became a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1956 and attended the school for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1956 to 1957 Russian language in Dalian . In 1956 he was himself a lecturer at the weapons technology school No. 1 and between 1957 and 1963 he studied at the school for military engineering of the artillery corps of the Soviet Army . After his return he worked from 1963 to 1969 as an assistant in the ammunition section of the weapons department of the main logistics department of the People's Liberation Army and then from 1969 to 1975 as an assistant in the ammunition section of the department for military equipment of this main department. In 1975 he moved as a staff officer to the General Planning Section of the Department of Military Equipment in the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, where he was most recently deputy director of this section until 1982.

Cao was then deputy director of the Military Equipment Department on the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army from 1982 to 1989, and was promoted to major general in 1988 . After he was director of the Department of Military Equipment in the General Staff between 1989 and 1990, he served as Director of the Department of Military Trade of the Central Military Commission (ZMK) from 1990 to 1992 . He was then Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army between 1992 and 1996 and was promoted to lieutenant general in this role in 1993 . Subsequently, from 1996 to 1998 he held the post of Director of the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense with the rank of Minister. On the XV. In 1997, he became a member of the Central Committee of the CCP for the first time . After his re-election at the XVI. Member of the party congress from 2002 to 2007.

Donald Rumsfeld and Cao Gangchuan (right).

After his promotion to general in 1998, Cao Gangchuan became a member of the Central Military Commission, director of the newly created Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army and secretary of the main department's party committee. He acted as deputy of Hu Jintao between 2002 and 2007 as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and was also at the XVI. 2002 CCP Congress also a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party , of which he was a member until 2007. On March 15, 2003, he succeeded General Chi Haotian as Minister of Defense . He held this position until he was replaced by General Liang Guanglie on March 17, 2008. At the same time he was a member of the State Council of the People's Republic of China between March 17, 2003 and March 17, 2008 .

Cao belongs to a new generation of professionally trained officers in the People's Liberation Army, chosen for their ability to keep up with the growing technical demands of contemporary warfare. He was a staunch advocate of a scaled-down modern army, which met with some resistance from the "traditionalists" who favored a strategy of the People's Liberation Army with millions of motivated but poorly equipped soldiers. His military strategy was centered on Taiwan , taking the view that the People's Republic of China will win a war against the Republic of China without major destruction if that war is well planned and carried out through a swift, high-tech attack. To this end, he himself had monitored several maneuvers designed for this purpose. Rather than viewing the Taiwan issue as an aggressive expansion, he argued that it was a national defense issue. For this reason, the Taiwan question must be resolved in favor of mainland China so that the People's Republic can concentrate on its economic development.

Web links

• Entry in China Vitae
• Aiwu Song: Biographical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China , p. 24, McFarland, 2013, ISBN 0-7864-3582-8 ( online version )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ XVI. Party Congress (November 8-14, 2002): Politburo
2. ↑ China: March 15, 2003 in Rulers
3. ↑ China: Defense Ministers in Rulers

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Cao is the family name here, Gangchuan is the first name.