10 Facts About Wu Shengli

Wu Shengli is a retired Chinese admiral who served as commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy from 2006 to 2017.

Wu Shengli's tenure was marked by a litany of achievements and historic firsts, including the PLAN's first deployment of a counter-piracy task force to the Gulf of Aden in 2008, the first evacuation of foreign nationals from a distant country during the 2011 Libyan Civil War, and the commissioning of China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning in 2012.

Wu Shengli was born in Wuqiao, Hebei Province in August 1945.

Wu Shengli is the son of Wu Xian, who was a Red Army political commissar during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.

Wu Shengli earned a degree in oceanography from the PLA Surveying and Mapping Academy in 1966, just before the Cultural Revolution swept China and largely shut down the country's higher education system.

Wu Shengli did not attend naval officer training courses until 1972, when he began the captain's course at the Dalian Naval Academy.

Wu Shengli was promoted to vice admiral a year later.

Wu Shengli was appointed commander of the PLA Navy in August 2006, when a terminal illness forced his predecessor, Admiral Zhang Dingfa, to step down.

Wu Shengli's tenure has been marked by a litany of achievements and historic firsts.

Wu Shengli was reelected a member of the 18th CCP Central Committee.