What will 2025 bring for China’s Defence Minister Dong Jun and military diplomacy?

Key promotions have eluded Dong, two of whose predecessors fell in corruption probes, with implications for Beijing’s military diplomacy

Reading Time:6 minutes

Published: 6:00am, 12 Jan 2025

China’s defence ministers, despite their limited role in military decision-making, would always sit on the podium with the top commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at ceremonies to promote generals, and receive their salutes.

The ministers – the public face of China’s military – would be on that stage because they belonged to the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), traditionally chaired by the leader of the ruling Communist Party, a position held by President Xi Jinping since 2012.

But last year, the seating arrangements changed.

Admiral Dong Jun, China’s defence minister since December 2023, has not appeared on a podium at any such public event. Instead, he has watched from the front row, alongside dozens of other generals representing different PLA forces and regional commands.

Also, while China’s defence minister has traditionally been a member of the CMC, the top decision-making body for the Chinese armed forces, Dong is not. Neither is he a member of the State Council, China’s cabinet, another role held by all his predecessors.

This break with decades of precedent has left Dong as arguably the least powerful defence minister since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

The revised arrangement comes at a particularly delicate moment in China’s military diplomacy, as Dong’s two immediate predecessors – Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe – were expelled from the party last year for corruption.