Wednesday, 4 August 2010

MAO IS COMING BACK

Mao Xinyu, the grandson of former Chairman Mao Zedong, has been confirmed as China’s youngest major-general, state-run media reported Monday, more than a year after rumors first surfaced that he had been promoted.

Sky Canaves
Mao Xinyu with a reporter outside the Great Hall of the People in March

Bao Guojun, a spokesman at the Academy of Military Sciences, where Mao is a researcher, confirmed the promotion to the state-run Global Times newspaper, but didn’t say exactly when the promotion occurred.

“This is a natural elevation. Mao’s many achievements earned him the right to be promoted,” Bao said, according to the newspaper.

The news appears to put to rest questions over Mao’s promotion that began nearly a year ago, but the confusion underscores the secrecy of China’s armed forces. A flurry of speculation began last year when domestic and international media reported Mao had been introduced as a major-general at a speech.

On Monday, the Associated Press speculated that a delay in the official announcement was to avoid the appearance of favoritism. If Mao was indeed promoted last year as originally reported, that would make him China’s youngest-ever major-general at age 39, the AP said.

“I never thought I would be able to enter the military, even less did I dream that I could reach the rank of major-general,” Mao told the Times of London in an interview published in 2009. In the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, a major-general is the lowest of the general ranks.

While he may be the youngest general, his role in China today is as a sort of celebrity icon rather than a military genius. He writes a popular blog hosted by the website of the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, and his official role is as a military historian. In a recent blog post dated June 26, he commemorated his uncle Mao Anying, the eldest son of Mao Zedong, who died in an airstrike during the Korean War. http://blog.people.com.cn/blog/s/92732

Mao Xinyu is also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the main advisory body to the National People’s Congress, China’s annual legislative session. During the meeting in March, Mao proposed that his grandfather’s thought should be applied to modern military strategy.

– Brian Spegele

Asia Wall Street Journal

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