China’s Defense Minister to arrive

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Mongolia will receive the Colonel-General Chang Wanquan, the Minister of Defense and a State Councilor of the People’s Republic of China on this October 8-10 He has been invited by his Mongolian counterpart Ts.Tsolmon. This has been a year of high-level interactions in the defense sphere for Mongolia, having hosted visits of Under-secretary-general for UN peacekeeping operations Hervé Ladsous, Minister of Defense of Qatar Major General Hamad Bin Ali Al Attiyah, Administrative Vice-Minister of Defense of Japan N.Masanori and Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow. The Colonel-General Chang has been a director of the PLA General Armaments Department and a member of the Central Military Commission of China. He has helped to manage China's space program. From January 2002 to December 2004, he was the chief of staff and a CPC committee member of the PLA Lanzhou Military Region. From December 2004 to September 2007, he was the commander of the PLA Shenyang Military Region. Since September 2007, he has been serving as the director of the PLA General Armaments Department. In October of 2007 he was elected the member of the Central Military Commission. He attained the rank of senior Colonel in 1992, Major General in July of 1997, Lieutenant General in 2003, and Full General in October of 2007. He has been a member of the 16th, 17th and 18th Central Committees. In October of 2012, he was appointed the Minister of National Defense, succeeding General Liang Guanglie. At the first plenary session of the 12th National People's Congress, he was also elected as State Councilor.