Chen Bingde

General Chen Bingde (陈炳德) (1941-) is the Chief of General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and ranks No.5 in the Central Military Commission (CMC). General Chen is in charge of the General Staff Department, the PLA's highest command headquarters. He was appointed his current position in August 2008. Before that, he was the head of the PLA General Armament Department (GAD).

Chen was born in July 1941 and joined the PLA at age 19 in April 1961. Between 1961 and 1964, he was a soldier in the Army. From 1964 to 1965, he was appointed platoon commander position. From 1965 to 1974, he served as a junior staff in a division headquarters. From 1974 to 1977, he served as the chief of staff in his regiment and deputy chief of staff in the division. In 1977, he was promoted to the regiment commander position. In 1982, he was promoted to the commander of the 179th Division. In 1983, he was promoted again to become the deputy commander of the 60th Army. In 1983, he was transferred to the 1st Group Army (GA) to become the deputy army commander and concurrently the chief of staff. He stayed in this position for seven years.

In 1990, Chen was appointed head of the PLA Nanchang Army Academy. Three years later he went back to the operational unit to become the commander of the 1st GA. Only ten months later he was appointed chief of staff of the Nanjing MR. In January 1996, he was promoted to the commander of the Nanjing MR and the deputy Party secretary. In December 1992, in response to the growing tension between the China mainland and Taiwan, Chen was replaced by more experience General Liang Guanglie from the Shenyang MR. Chen himself became the Commander of the Jinan MR. In June 2002, Chen was promoted to General.

In September 2004, Chen was appointed head of the GAD, and a member of the CMC. In August 2008, in a surprise move, Chen was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the PLA. His appointment over some more qualified officers has brought some controversy. However, unlike his predecessors, Chen was not appointed the Party secretary of the GSD Party committee concurrently. Instead, this important position was retained by the former Chief of the General Staff and current Defence Minister General Liang Guanglie, who holds control over important personnel matters in the GSD.

Last update: 24 August 2008