China Appoints New Military Commander Amid Standoff In Ladakh
![](http://i0.wp.com/www.defencexp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Webp.net-resizeimage-49.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1)
Chinese President Xi Jinping has appointed a new General as the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theatre Command which oversees the China-India border, amidst the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
President 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 Commander of the Western Theatre Command, according to the Chinese media.
Xi has promoted four senior Chinese military and armed police officers. Among them was Gen. Zhang, Military Commander of the Western Theatre Command of the PLA, state-run 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.
The new appointments at the top of the PLA Western Command comes in the midst of the standoff between the Chinese and Indian military in eastern Ladakh since May.
Gen. Zhang, especially his association with Western Theatre Command, as he reportedly served mostly in other theatre commands of the PLA.
He succeeds 65-year-old Gen. Zhao Zongqi who headed the Western Theatre Command during the 2017 Doklam standoff 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.
The Ladakh standoff also happened under the watch 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.
India and China on Friday held a fresh round of diplomatic talks on the standoff along with the friction points of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) after a gap of more than two months and reached a conclusion to convene army commanders meet soon