PLA says chief of its arms wing replaced

The People's Liberation Army has appointed a new chief for its arms and equipment wing.

Lieutenant General Li Shangfu, 59, has replaced General Zhang Youxia, 67, as head of the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department. The information was published by the department in a news release on Monday when Li appeared in a civil-military integration expo in Beijing in his new capacity for the first time.

Li's previous post was deputy commander of the PLA Strategic Support Force, the youngest branch of the Chinese military.

Details about the new appointment remain unknown as the military does not publish information about its personnel changes.

The son of a PLA veteran who was also a senior officer, Li joined the PLA in 1978 when he was admitted to the PLA National University of Defense Technology. After graduating in 1982, he was assigned to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province as a technician and began to move up through the ranks at the center.

Li was named head of the center in 2003 and was promoted to major general in 2006. He stayed in Xichang for 31 years until 2013 when he was appointed chief of staff at the former PLA General Armaments Department, predecessor to the CMC Equipment Development Department.

The next year, he was named deputy head of the General Armaments Department.

In 2016, he was transferred to the post of deputy commander of the PLA Strategic Support Force, which was established on the last day of 2015 to strengthen the Chinese military's capabilities in high-tech spheres such as cyberspace and even space itself. In the same year, he was made a lieutenant general.

The last time Zhang appeared in news reports as head of the CMC Equipment Development Department was in late May, when he visited Belarus and Hungary.

He was commander of the former PLA Shenyang Military Command before becoming chief of the former PLA General Armaments Department in 2012.