Xu Yong (; born April 1959) is a lieutenant general (''

zhong jiang (; ja, 将, Shō; ) is the rank held by general officers in some East Asian militaries. The ranks are used in both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan. The People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police ...

'') of the People's Liberation Army, who was Commander of the

Tibet Military District The Tibet Military District is a military district of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force. It was first established in 1952, possibly from elements previously part of the 18th Corps. In December 1968 it became part of the Chengdu Military ...

from 2013 to 2019.

Biography

Xu Yong was born in 1959 in

Baoji () is a prefecture-level city in western Shaanxi province, People's Republic of China. Since the early 1990s, Baoji has been the second largest city in Shaanxi. Geography The prefecture-level city of Baoji had a population of 3,321,853 accord ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...

Province. He holds a master's degree from

PLA National Defence University The People's Liberation Army National Defence University () is a Beijing-based national military university administered by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and funded by the Central Military Commission. The university is the highest milita ...

. Xu began his career as a military scout, and fought in the

Sino-Vietnamese War The Sino-Vietnamese War (also known by other names) was a border war fought between China and Vietnam in early 1979. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's actions against the Khmer Rouge in 1978, which ended the rule of the C ...

in 1979. He rose through the ranks to become battalion commander, division commander, corps-level chief of staff, and then commander of the

13th Group Army In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave ...

in 2008. He attained the rank of

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

in 2007. After the Great Sichuan earthquake occurred in May 2008, Xu was the first general to arrive at the

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

Yingxiu Yingxiu () is a town of southern Wenchuan County, in northwestern Sichuan Province. It is located at the southern end of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, and lies on the road to Jiuzhaigou Valley, Wolong and the Siguniang Mou ...

with his soldiers to join the rescue mission. At the time, his 19-year-old son had just died of cancer a month before. Xu Yong was appointed commander of the Tibet Military District in July 2013, replacing

Yang Jinshan Yang Jinshan (; born 1954) is a disgraced general in the People's Liberation Army of China. He served as the Deputy Commander of Chengdu Military Region between July 2013 to October 2014, and Commander of Tibet Military District from December ...

. On 15 July 2014, he was promoted to the rank of

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

(''

'') together with

Diao Guoxin Diao Guoxin (; born October 1958) is a lieutenant general (''zhong jiang'') of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China. He served as Political Commissar of the Tibet Military District from 2012 to 2016. Biography Diao Guoxin was born in O ...

, the political commissar of the Tibet Military District. Xu is a PLA member of the

12th National People's Congress The 12th National People's Congress was elected in national congressional conferences from October 2012 to February 2013 and was in session from 2013 to 2018. It succeeded the 11th National People's Congress. It held five plenary sessions in t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Yong 1959 births Living people People's Liberation Army generals from Shaanxi People from Baoji PLA National Defence University alumni Delegates to the 12th National People's Congress