The Chinese parliament appointed the commander-in-chief of the Navy of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) Dong Jun as the new Defense Minister, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.
Dong was appointed at the seventh session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held in Beijing on December 25-29, according to the broadcaster.
Earlier in October previous Defense Minister Li Shangfu was removed from his post. Li was also removed from the post of a member of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Born in 1961, Dung Jun graduated from Dalian Naval Academy of the Navy. According to open sources, in 2013 he was appointed deputy commander of East Sea fleet. In December 2014 he became deputy chief of staff of the PLA Navy.
In 2017 he became deputy commander of Southern Theater Command and served on this position until 2021 when he gradually became the commander of PLA Navy – virtually, China’s top admiral.