18 Facts About Ding Yiping

Ding Yiping is a retired vice-admiral of the People's Liberation Army Navy of China.

Ding Yiping served as Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the PLAN, and Commander of the North Sea Fleet.

Ding Yiping was groomed to be the candidate for PLAN Commander, but was demoted following the fatal submarine 361 accident in 2003.

Ding Yiping was born in February 1951 in Xiangxiang, Hunan Province.

Ding Yiping is the son of Lieutenant General Ding Qiusheng, the founding political commissar of PLAN's North Sea Fleet, and therefore considered a "princeling".

Ding Yiping spent most of his career in the North Sea Fleet of the Jinan Military Region, successively serving on the naval ships Kunming, Chengdu, and Changsha.

Ding Yiping became captain of Changsha in the late 1970s.

Ding Yiping was appointed President of Guangzhou Naval Academy in July 1993, and promoted to the rank of rear admiral the same month.

Ding Yiping was appointed chief of staff of the North Sea Fleet in January 1995 and deputy commander in December 1997.

Ding Yiping was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral in July 2002.

Ding Yiping was elected as an alternate of the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 2002, and re-elected as an alternate of the 17th Central Committee in 2007.

Ding Yiping was groomed to be the candidate for Commander of the PLA Navy.

Ding Yiping had comparable command experience as Admiral Wu Shengli but was six years younger, and became an alternate Central Committee member five years before Wu.

However, Ding Yiping was penalized following a fatal accident with the Type 035 Ming-class submarine 361 on April 16,2003.

In July 2014, Ding Yiping retired from active military service after reaching the mandatory retirement age.

Ding Yiping is one of the more prolific writers in the PLA Navy leadership.

Ding Yiping was deputy editor of the 2006 book The Science of Naval Training.

Ding Yiping has published a number of articles, including one on the importance of civil-military relations in the journal Culture in Barracks.