Recently, Major General Yong Chenggang of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made a public appearance in his capacity as the person responsible for military affairs at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). The current president of NUDT and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 59-year-old Major General Li Xiang, had been unusually absent for nearly six months with his whereabouts unknown. Within the past five months, there were successive changes in the positions of political commissars and deputy political commissars at NUDT.
According to the official website of Renmin University of China, on April 27, 2026, the first National Defense Education Discipline Professional Construction Seminar was held at NUDT, attended by over thirty high-ranking officials from CCP departments, military commissions, and universities. Yong Chenggang, the person in charge of military affairs at NUDT, was listed after CCP department and military commission officials but ahead of officials from other universities.
This marks the first public appearance of Yong Chenggang in his role as the person responsible for military affairs at NUDT.
Public information indicates that Yong Chenggang, a Major General, previously served as the dean of the Military and Political Foundation Education Institute at NUDT and currently serves as the Minister of Education and Training at NUDT.
According to the media outlet “Chinese Personnel Observation,” the person in charge of military affairs at NUDT should have been the president of the university. Yong Chenggang assuming this role suggests that Major General Li Xiang, who previously served as the president of NUDT, is no longer in that position.
Currently, on the Wikipedia page for NUDT, Major General Yong Chenggang, the person in charge of military affairs, has replaced Major General Li Xiang as the president, alongside Political Commissar Zhang Zhan, listed as one of the main leaders of the university.
Verification by reporters from Dajiyuan found that since early January 2026, Yong Chenggang has appeared multiple times in his capacity as the Minister of Education and Training, often accompanying Political Commissar Zhang Zhan at important events at NUDT. Major General Li Xiang, the president of NUDT, has not been seen in public since November 7, 2025, when he attended an event to disseminate the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP. He has remained out of the public eye for nearly six months with his whereabouts undisclosed.
Based on public resumes, Li Xiang, born in September 1967 in Liuyang, Hunan Province, graduated from Xidian University in 1989 and obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees from NUDT in 1995 and 1998, respectively. He was promoted to the rank of Major General in December 2017. In 2018, he became the vice president of NUDT and the dean of the School of Electronic Science. In 2019, Li Xiang succeeded academician Deng Xiaogang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences as the second president of the university following its restructuring. In November 2021, he was elected as an academician of the Information Technology Science Department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Li Xiang is an expert in radar target identification, specializing in the research of fine feature extraction and identification of long-range radar targets. He has received awards and honors such as the National Technical Invention Award of the CCP and the Outstanding Professional and Technical Talent Award of the military.
During Major General Li Xiang’s unusual absence as the president of NUDT, it was reported on the official website of NUDT that on December 27, 2025, the university held a Youth Scholars Forum. Political Commissar Zhang Zhan attended the event and delivered a speech on behalf of the university.
This marked the first public appearance of Zhang Zhan in his capacity as the political commissar of NUDT, indicating that Chen Guoqiang has stepped down from his position as the political commissar of the university. According to public information, Zhang Zhan, a Major General, previously served as the political commissar of the Electronic Countermeasures Institute at NUDT and concurrently as the deputy political commissar and secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission at NUDT.
On November 20, 2025, Chen Guoqiang publicly participated in activities as the political commissar of NUDT.
Chen Guoqiang, born in April 1963 in Gucheng, Hengshui, Hebei Province, holds the rank of Air Force Major General. He previously served in airborne troops and held positions such as the director of the Political Department of the 15th Airborne Troop and the director of the Political Work Department of the Airborne Troops.
During Miao Hua’s tenure as the director of the Political Work Department of the Military Commission, Chen Guoqiang progressed through the political work system, subsequently serving as the director of the Aerospace Systems Department of the Strategic Support Force and the deputy political commissar and director of the Political Work Department of the Central Theater Command. In August 2021, he was promoted to the full-time Deputy Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Military Commission, later concurrently serving as the Deputy Director of the Military Commission’s Discipline Inspection and Supervisory Commission.
Miao Hua was publicly announced to be under “inspection while suspended” on November 28, 2024. Prior to this announcement, in September 2024, Chen Guoqiang was appointed as the political commissar of NUDT. At that time, rumors of Miao Hua’s dismissal had already emerged. The Military Commission’s Discipline Inspection Commission is a unit at the divisional level, while NUDT is at the military unit level. Chen Guoqiang’s transition from vice-provincial-level Major General to the position of political commissar at NUDT, traditionally held by a Major General, was seen as a clear demotion at the time.
In January 2026, Chen Guoqiang, who was also a standing committee member of the Military Commission’s Discipline Inspection Commission, was conspicuously absent from the Fifth Plenary Session of the discipline inspection commission.
After the two sessions of the National People’s Congress, on March 14, 2026, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission of the CCP updated the “Leadership Structure” page. The updated page showed that although Chen Guoqiang was still listed as a member of the commission, he was no longer a standing committee member. Simultaneously, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission deleted Chen Guoqiang’s profile.
Approximately four months after Zhang Zhan was promoted to the political commissar of NUDT, on April 10, 2026, NUDT held a grassroots club summarization and mobilization meeting for the year 2025 at its campus in Changsha. Deputy Political Commissar and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission Tian Yuefeng attended the meeting and delivered a speech.
This marked the first public appearance of Tian Yuefeng in his capacity as the deputy political commissar and secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission at NUDT, indicating that he had taken over from Zhang Zhan as the deputy political commissar and secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission at NUDT.
Tian Yuefeng’s age is undisclosed; as reported publicly, Tian Yuefeng previously served at the Academy of Military Science, holding positions such as the Director of Human Resources at the Political Work Department and the Deputy Political Commissar of the Strategic Assessment Consultative Center at the Academy of Military Science and also the Deputy Political Commissar of the National Defense Engineering Research Institute.
The predecessor of NUDT was founded in Harbin in 1953 as the CCP Military Engineering College, also known as “Harbin Military College.” In 1970, the main body of the college was relocated to Changsha and renamed Changsha Institute of Technology. In 1978, it was restructured as the National University of Defense Technology. In 2017, the authorities integrated the NUDT, the Academy of International Relations, the Academy of National Defense Information, Xi’an Communication College, the School of Electronic Engineering, the Meteorology and Oceanography College of the University of Science and Technology into the rebuilt NUDT, under the leadership of the CCP Central Military Commission. According to its official website, NUDT engages in research on advanced weapon systems and key defense technologies, including the “Tianhe” series of supercomputing systems, the “Beidou” satellite navigation system, and others.