Yi Xiaoguang (; born June 1958) is a general of the Chinese

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

(PLAAF) who served as commander of the

Central Theater Command The Central Theater Command () is one of the five theater commands of the People's Liberation Army of China, and was founded on 1 February 2016. Its predecessors were the Beijing Military Region and Jinan Military Region. The International In ...

from 2017 to 2021. Previously he served as President of the Air Force Command Academy, Commander of the

Nanjing Military Region The Nanjing Military Region () was one of the former seven military command regions for the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Its jurisdiction covers all military and armed police located in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Shanghai ...

Air Force, and Deputy Chief of the

Joint Staff The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...

. He is a member of the

19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics 19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...

Biography

Yi Xiaoguang was born into a military family in

Shuyang County Shuyang () is a county in northern Jiangsu province. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Suqian. Shuyang sits on the Northern Jiangsu Plains and borders the cities of Xuzhou, Lianyungang and Huai'an to the north, east ...

Suqian Suqian (, IPA: ) is a prefecture-level city in northern Jiangsu Province, China. It borders Xuzhou to the northwest, Lianyungang to the northeast, Huai'an to the south, and the province of Anhui to the west. History Suqian was said to be the si ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

Province. He joined the PLAAF in 1974 at the age of 16, studied at the Baoding Aviation School for a year, and became a

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

commander three years later at the age of 20. He entered the famous PLA Air Force Command Academy in Haidian,

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in 1984, laying the foundation for his subsequent "helicopter rise." He reached the post of deputy division commander in 1989 at the age of 31 and division command in 1992, director of the Department of Training in the PLAAF Headquarters in 1996 (the youngest grade-two department head at the time), and deputy chief of staff of

Guangzhou Military Region The Guangzhou Military Region was from 1955 to 2016 one of the People's Liberation Army PLA Military Regions, located in the south of the People's Republic of China. In May 1949, the Central China (Hua Zhong) Military Region (MR) was formed. In Mar ...

Air Force in 2002. Yi served as president of the PLA Air Force Command Academy (AFCA) from 2004 to 2008. In PLA tradition, it is relatively easy to find a capable corps commander, but very difficult to locate a capable president for a top military university. When he was divisional commander in 1992, Yi wrote ''The Chinese/English Manual for Jet Pilots'', unique for a combat pilot with no formal higher education and an achievement helpful for his appointment to the presidency of the AFCA. In 2003, Yi Xiaoguang and Sun Herong co-authored the highly acclaimed book ''The Stealth Aircraft: A Difficult Adversary'' ( ). The book proved popular with the PLAAF, then in the midst of examining high-tech warfare. In 2008 Yi was brought back to the PLAAF headquarters as deputy chief of staff. In December 2010, he was appointed commander of the

Air Force. In December 2012, he was named assistant to the Chief of

, before getting promoted to Deputy Chief of

in July 2014. In August 2017, Yi was appointed Commander of the

, replacing

Han Weiguo Han Weiguo (; born January 1956) is a general (''shang jiang'') of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). He has been Commander of the PLA Ground Force from August 2017 to June 2021, and formerly served as the inaugural Commander of the Centr ...

. Yi attained the rank of major general in July 2001, and lieutenant general in July 2012. He was promoted to general in July 2016; at the time of his promotion, Yi, 58, was the youngest full general in all branches of the PLA. He was an alternate member of the

18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was elected by the 18th National Congress on 15 November 2012, and sat in plenary sessions until the communing of the 19th National Congress in 2017. It was formally proceeded by the 17t ...

, ranking 166 out of 168 alternate members (based on votes in favour at the Party Congress). In October 2017, he was elected as a member of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yi, Xiaoguang 1958 births Living people People's Liberation Army generals from Jiangsu People's Liberation Army Air Force generals People from Shuyang County Commanders of the Nanjing Military Region Air Force Alternate members of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Chinese Communist Party politicians from Jiangsu People's Republic of China politicians from Jiangsu Politicians from Suqian Members of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party