Newcomers in charge at PLA’s corruption-hit command overseeing Taiwan

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, the division that oversees Taiwan and that has been hit hard in Beijing’s anti-graft campaign, appears to be presided over by two officers who joined the division only recently.

According to an analyst, the appointments mean the division maintained continuity of operation despite corruption cases being found in its leadership.

Air Force Lieutenant General Yang Zhibin, 62, and Lieutenant General Zhang Jichun, 57, stood alongside other senior officials at China’s annual commemoration of the Nanking massacre in Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province, on Saturday, according to footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV.

While the official readout did not declare Yang and Zhang’s titles, it did say top officials from the Eastern Theatre Command were present. The duo, together with General Liu Zhenli, the People’s Liberation Army chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department, were the only senior military officers present.

At the same event last year, both the commander and the political commissar of the theatre command were in the same spots. Then commander Lin Xiangyang was confirmed to be expelled from the party on corruption charges and handed over to prosecutors in October and former political commissar Liu Qingsong has not been seen in public for months.

The tightly scripted annual commemoration is regarded as an important national event every year as China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 massacre in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. The ranks and positions of civilian and military officials attending follow strict procedures.

Shi Taifeng, head of the ruling Communist Party’s organisation department and one of 23 Politburo members, was the highest-ranking official to attend the 88th anniversary commemoration.

Yang and Zhang had earlier represented the theatre command at an event in September, months after Lin and Liu disappeared.

  

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