BEIJING, Dec. 29 China's parliament on Friday appointed the commander-in-chief of the Navy The People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) Dong Jun is the new head of the Ministry of Defense, follows from a decision published by the state news agency Xinhua.
Admiral Dong Jun has served as commander-in-chief of the PLA Navy since 2021.
The decision was made on Friday during 7th session of the 14th NPC Standing Committee, held in Beijing on December 25-29. The Standing Committee of the NPC is a permanent body of the Chinese parliament that works between annual sessions.
The decision to appoint Dong Jun to the post of head of the Chinese defense department was made more than two months after it was announced that the previous Minister of Defense Li Shangfu had been removed from the post. The reasons for Li Shangfu's removal from office were not specified.
Li Shangfu has not appeared in public since late August, when he spoke at the China-Africa Peace and Security Forum. The Wall Street Journal reported on September 15, citing two American officials, that Li Shangfu is under investigation for corruption and will likely be removed. Official representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China then stated that they were not aware of the situation around Li Shanfu.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Charles Brown, spoke with the Chief of the Joint Staff of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China, Liu Zhenli, which was the first communication between high-ranking officials military in Washington and Beijing since the Chinese government stopped all such contacts in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August 2022.