New Delhi: In its own typical mode of announcing a new commander for the critically important Western Theatre, China’s all-powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) on Monday announced that Western Theater Commander Wang Haijiang has been promoted to the highest rank of General.
This is also the first time that Gen Wang’s name has been officially announced as the new commander for the Western Theatre, China’s biggest. This Theatre takes care of the country’s northwestern and western region that shares a very sensitive border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan states.
Significantly, Gen Wang is the fourth commander for the PLA's Western Theatre in less than two years. His predecessor Gen Xu Qiling had taken over just about two months ago. Gen Xu had succeeded Gen Zhang Xudong in December 2020 who in turn had succeeded Gen Zhao Zongqi.
Besides the politically sensitive provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang, the jurisdiction of the Western Theatre includes Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Chongqing and Guizhou.
The other officers promoted to the rank of General are Central Theater Commander Lin Xiangyang, Navy Commander Dong Jun, Air Force Commander Chang Dingqiu, and National Defense University President Xu Xueqiang.
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The promotion ceremony on Monday at Beijing’s Bayi Building was attended by China President and CMC chairman Xi Jinping, Xu Qiliang and Zhang Youxia, both vice chairpersons of the CMC.
Known to be close to Chen Quanguo, the top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and a member of the CCP’s 19th Politburo, Gen Wang is expected to toe the hardline party position on the issue of Uighurs and Tibetans.
Reported to have participated in China’s border war with Vietnam in 1979, Gen Wang has also commanded both the Xinjiang and Tibet military regions—the domain knowledge of which will be very helpful in dealing with the dynamics of the terror-affected Af-Pak region and expected spillover effects from the recent developments in Afghanistan.
China is very concerned over spillover of Islamic militancy into its Xinjiang province with Uighur militants being possibly encouraged by the overthrow of the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul by the Taliban as well as the possibility of its border areas with Afghanistan and Pakistan becoming a hub of militancy like before.
Also the border tension with India remains unresolved despite several rounds of talks at various levels. Tension flared with India beginning April-May, 2020, leading to the brutal incident of June 15 in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley which resulted in unprecedentedly heavy deployment of troops and warlike equipment by both India and China.
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