China appoints seasoned military commander to head troops along Indian border

A seasoned army officer who participated in the Sino-Vietnam war, and headed the Tibet military district when the clash at Galwan valley took place last year, has been promoted as the commander of China’s Western Military Command that patrols the border with India.

Gen Haijiang Wang is among five officers promoted to the top rank. He is believed to be an expert on India, having spent a majority of his service life in Xinjiang and Tibet. The officer has also visited India and met senior officers as part of military exchanges in 2016.

Then a major general, he was part of a India-China training exercise in Pune where his counterpart was major general YK Joshi. The latter has since moved on to head the Udhampur based Northern Command, which overlooks defences in Ladakh and has been at the centre of action on the eastern border with China.


Haijiang is the fourth officer to be appointed as the western theatre commander since tensions broke out in Ladakh last year. The postings of the last two commanders were for seven and two months, respectively.

He is one of the few officers left in the PLA who have combat experience, having participated in the war with Vietnam after joining service in 1977. The conflict, which ended in 1979, was the last in which PLA lost soldiers during action before the Galwan clash last June. Security insiders said that Haijiang has vast experience of service at the Xinjiang military district responsible for the security of Aksai Chin. This includes appointments at the battalion, division and military district level. In 2019, he was made the commander of the Tibet military district, having served as its deputy commander earlier.