Zhang Youxia

Zhang Youxia ( Chinese  张 又 侠 , Pinyin Zhāng Yòuxiá ; born July 1950 in Beijing ) is a Chinese general and has been a member of the 19th Politburo of the Communist Party of China since October 2017 . He has been Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission since October 2017 and thus, behind President Xi Jinping, one of the two highest-ranking commanders of the military and one of the two highest-ranking military representatives of the PRC; the other is General Xu Qiliang .

Zhang Youxia in 2017

Career

Zhang was born in Beijing in July 1950 and grew up in Weinan City, Shaanxi Province . His father, Zhang Zongxun, was also a general in the People's Liberation Army . He and President Xi Jinping's father were comrades in the army in the 1940s. Zhang Youxia joined the People's Liberation Army in 1968. In 1979 he took part in the Sino-Vietnamese War as a commander . During the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict in 1984, he acted as a colonel.

From 2000, Zhang was a commander in the 13th Army and then vice-commander for the Beijing Military Region. From 2007, he was a commander in the Shenyang Military Region and was promoted to lieutenant general. In 2011 he was appointed general. The following year he became director of the Armaments Department of the Central Military Commission. During this time, the manned space flight and the exploration of the moon by the military fell into his area of ​​responsibility. Zhang is an advocate of linking military and civilian projects, an idea that Xi initiated and will drive Zhang forward. He is also working on intensifying military cooperation with Russia.

Zhang has been a member of the Politburo and Central Committee of the Communist Party of China since October 2017. He was a member of the 17th and 18th Central Committees . In October 2017, he became vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, replacing Chang Wanquan . He is considered a very close ally of President Xi Jinping and is supposed to modernize the army. He is also one of the few military personnel with war experience.

Web links

Commons : Zhang Youxia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} CV of Zhang Youxia. Retrieved November 2, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Minnie Chan: General Zhang Youxia: Xi Jinping's 'sworn brother' now his deputy on China's top military body. In: South China Morning Post . October 25, 2017, accessed November 2, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Xu Qiliang, Zhang Youxia endorsed as vice-chairmen of Central Military Commission of PRC. In: Xinhua . March 18, 2018, accessed November 2, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Liu Yuanxun. 中国 军队 作战 重大 实录. Lhasa: People's Publisher of Tibet, 2000. ISBN 7-223-00648-X
5. ↑ Sebastian Heilmann: The political system of the People's Republic of China . Springer-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2015, p. 138 .
6. ↑ Ministry of Defense of the PR China: General Zhang Youxia meets with Russian Defense Minister. October 22, 2018, accessed November 7, 2018 . 

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