18 Facts About Liu Xiaojiang

Liu Xiaojiang is a retired Chinese admiral who served as Political Commissar of the People's Liberation Army Navy from 2008 to 2014.

Liu Xiaojiang is the son-in-law of former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Yaobang.

Liu Xiaojiang is the son of Liu Haibin, a Red Army veteran, and the son-in-law of Hu Yaobang, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1968, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, Liu Xiaojiang was forced to work on a rural commune in Xixiang County, Shaanxi, as an "educated youth".

Liu Xiaojiang remained there for two years before joining the military.

Liu Xiaojiang entered the PLA Ground Force in 1970 as a soldier in the railroad corps, and was eventually made a platoon leader.

From April 1972 to January 1975, Liu Xiaojiang studied at the Chinese Department of Heilongjiang University.

From 1978 to 1980, Liu Xiaojiang served in the PLA General Staff Department as secretary of the Headquarters Office of the GSD Communications Department.

From 1980 to 1983, Liu Xiaojiang served as personal secretary to the powerful former PLA Navy commander and Central Military Commission vice-chair Liu Xiaojiang Huaqing.

In 1984, Liu Xiaojiang was assigned to the PLA General Political Department, serving as deputy director of the Planning and Assignments Division within the GPD's Cadre Department, a department responsible for a wide range of personnel matters.

In 1998, at age 49, Liu Xiaojiang took his first navy billet, becoming deputy director of the PLA Navy's Political Department, a Grade 5 position.

Liu Xiaojiang was made a member of the CCP-wide 16th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

In 2009, Liu Xiaojiang published a lengthy article in the PLA Daily, recounting his work on the Yuanhua affair and discussing steps the PLA should take to address the challenge of corruption.

Liu Xiaojiang became political commissar of the PLA Navy after his predecessor, Hu Yanlin, retired in 2008.

Liu Xiaojiang was elected as a full member to the 17th CCP Central Committee in 2007 and the 18th CCP Central Committee in 2012.

Liu Xiaojiang retired from military service in December 2014, after reaching the maximum retirement age of 65.

Liu Xiaojiang is married to Li Manmei, the daughter of former CCP general secretary Hu Yaobang, a political moderate whose death in 1989 was a major contributing event to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

In Li Manmei's 2005 memoir about her father, she recounts how Liu Xiaojiang joined her three brothers in carrying wreathes for the December 1990 ceremony at which Hu's ashes were interred.