Chairman XI Removes General Zhao Zongqi Western Theatre Commander Amid Ladakh Fiasco
Dated : 20 Dec 2020 (IST)
Chairman of Chinese Communist Party and Commander in Chief of PLA Xi Jinping has removed General Zhao Zongqi and appointed a new General as the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theatre Command which handles the India Tibetan border. The change of Command has taken place amidst the military actions by PLA in Eastern Ladakh, trying unsuccessfully to coerce the Indian Army.
Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high-command of the two million-strong People’s Liberation Army (PLA), appointed Gen. Zhang Xudong as the new Commander of the Western Theatre Command, according to the official media in Beijing.
Xi has this time promoted four senior Chinese military and armed police officers. Among them was Gen. Zhang, Commander of the Western Theatre Command of the PLA, as per Xinhua news agency. The other officers who were promoted include Guo Puxiao, Political Commissar of the Logistic Support Department of the CMC; Li Wei, Political Commissar of the PLA Strategic Support Force and Wang Chunning, Commander.
Not much is known about Gen. Zhang, especially Nice he had earlier served in the area of Western Theatre Command, as he has reportedly served mostly in other theatre commands of the PLA.
He succeeds 65-year-old Gen. Zhao Zongqi who headed the Western Theatre Command and had authorized the 2017 Doklam incursions where the Indian Army stood up against the PLA’s plan of laying a road close to the Indian border in an area claimed by Bhutan. In this crisis PLA had lost face internationally and probably it was then when Zhang must have started planning the Galwan incident which again failed miserably.
The Ladakh standoff has happened under the overall Command of Gen Zhao. It began in May after China dispatched thousands of troops which were mobilised for military exercises to eastern Ladakh borders, sparking a new round of tensions with India. Zhao next assignment will be watched with interest as it will indicate his standing in the PLA.
India and China have held several rounds of talks at the diplomatic and military-level to resolve the prolonged standoff. Both sides have deployed additional troops and are equally matched with India retaining having the edge.
At the latest round of foreign ministry-level talks on December 18, the two sides said that they have agreed to continue work towards ensuring complete disengagement of troops in all friction points along the LAC. The meeting also decided to hold the next round of military dialogue at an early date.
