A few weeks ago, I mentioned on this blog the name of the new commander of the Tibet Military District (TMD).
Lt Gen Wang Kai formerly served as one of the Deputy Commanders of the Western Theater Command.
He took over the TMD from Lt Gen Wang Haijiang, who was transferred to Xinjiang Military District (XMD) on April 1 (it is not an April fool).
From his CV, which appeared on Chinese websites, Wang Kai had been Deputy Commander of the Army in the Western Theater Command with the rank of Major General and beginning of April, he was transferred to Lhasa and promoted lieutenant general.
Yesterday Gen Wang Kai appeared for the first time on TV when he participated in a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
According to the Chinese media, Wu Yingjie, the TAR Party Secretary insisted “on putting the safety and health of people of all ethnic groups as the first priority," he added that the members of the Party needed to grasp their political responsibility for the epidemic prevention and control.
Tibet TV said that in the morning of May 10, Wu Yingjie chaired a special meeting of the TAR Party Committee in Lhasa “to convey and learn the spirit of Premier Li Keqiang's instructions, and re-mobilize and redeploy the work of preventing the import of overseas epidemics.”
Is China nervous about the spread of the ‘Indian’ variant of the Chinese virus?
Let us not forget that Tibet has important trade relations with Nepal.
Another probable reason for the meeting of the Standing Committee is that Tibet has reopened its borders to China expats from May 9, after being closed for more than a year.
Incidentally, till recently, the Political Commissar of the TMD was representing the PLA in the TAR Standing Committee. It is not clear why Gen Wang Kai attended the meeting yesterday.
Has he been promoted to the Standing Committee?
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| Standing Committee of the TAR |
Lt Gen Wang Kai
Wang Kai served as brigade commander and commander of the 37th Division of the 13th Army.
During the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, Wang Kai, then commander of the 37th Division, led his troops to reach Beichuan, the hardest hit area, and commanded the men to advance to the epicenter of Yingxiu Town.
In 2009, he served as Chief of Staff of the Fourteenth Army of the Army.
He won the title of '5-12' National Model for Earthquake Relief.
'5-12' stands for May 12.
It refers to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, also known as the Great Sichuan earthquake or Wenchuan earthquake. It occurred at 14:20 hrs on May 12, 2008 and measured 8.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake's epicenter was located 80 kilometers west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Strong aftershocks, some exceeding 6 Ms, continued to hit the area up to several months after the main shock, causing further casualties and damage. The earthquake also caused the largest number of geohazards ever recorded, including about 200,000 landslides and more than 800 quake lakes distributed over an area of 110,000 km2. Over 69,000 people lost their lives in the quake.
In July 2013, Wang Kai became the commander of the 13th Group Army. His illustrious predecessors include Gen Zhang Youxia (2000-12 – 2005-12), now member of the Central Military Commission; Gen Zhao Zongqi (2007-09), former commander of the WTC of Doklam fame and Gen Xu Yong (2008-13), former TMD Commander.
In April 2017, Gen Wang was transferred to Chengdu as deputy commander of the Western Theater Army.
In 2019, he won the commemorative medal of "Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China."
In April 2021, he moved to Lhasa as the Commander of the TMD and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.
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