by Yew Lun Tian and Laurie Chen
BEIJING, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Former Chinese navy commander Dong Jun has been named defense minister, a post left vacant in October with the dismissal of his predecessor, who has not been seen in public for four month.
This announcement comes as President Xi Jinping modernizes the Chinese army and against a backdrop of territorial tensions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
Before becoming commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy in 2021, Dong Jun, 62, was vice commander of the East Sea Fleet, the backbone of what is now the Eastern Theater Command.
“Dong (Jun) is used to handling near-clashes between the Chinese and American military, which will be useful to him when he has to manage conflicts between the two countries,” explains Li Mingjiang, an international relations specialist at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore.
Dong Jun replaces Li Shangfu, who headed the department responsible for equipment acquisition and research before taking up the post of defense minister in March. He has not been seen in public since August 25.
When President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in San Francisco last month, the two leaders agreed to resume high-level talks suspended following the visit of then-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in Taiwan in August 2022. (Reporting Yew Lun Tian and Laurie Chen; French version Nathan Vifflin, editing by Kate Entringer)
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