View source for Wu Shengli

{{Short description|Chinese admiral}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Family name hatnote|[[Wu (surname)|Wu]]|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[Admiral]]
| name                = Wu Shengli
| native_name         = {{No bold|吴胜利}}
| native_name_lang    = zh-cn
| image               = File:130911-M-EV637-1236 (9727691896).jpg
| caption             = Wu Shengli in 2009
| office              = 7th [[Commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy]]
| term_start          = August 2006
| term_end            = January 2017
| 1blankname          = [[Political Commissar]]
| 1namedata           = [[Liu Xiaojiang]]<br />[[Miao Hua]]
| predecessor         = [[Zhang Dingfa]]
| successor           = [[Shen Jinlong]]
| office1             = Commander of the [[South Sea Fleet]]
| term_start1         = January 2002
| term_end1           = July 2004
| 1blankname1         = [[Supreme Military Command of the People's Republic of China|Supreme Command]]
| 1namedata1          = [[Jiang Zemin]]
| predecessor1        = [[Wang Yongguo]]
| successor1          = [[Gu Wengen]]
| office2             = President of [[Dalian Naval Academy]]
| term_start2         = 1994
| term_end2           = 1997
| predecessor2        = [[Chen Qingji]]
| successor2          = [[Zhang Zhannan]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth year and age|1945|8}}
| birth_place         = [[Wuqiao]], [[Hebei]], China
| death_date          = 
| death_place         = 
| placeofburial       = 
| alma_mater          = PLA Surveying and Mapping Academy<br />[[Dalian Naval Academy]]
| allegiance          = {{CCP flag}}
| branch              = [[File:Naval Ensign of the People's Republic of China.svg|border|23px]] [[People's Liberation Army Navy]]
| serviceyears        = 1964–2018
| rank                = [[File:PLANF-0720-GEN.png|20px]] [[Admiral]]
| commands            = 
| unit                = 
| battles             = 
| awards              = 
| laterwork           = 
| module              = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes
| s = 吴胜利
| t = 吳勝利
| p = Wú Shènglì
| order = st
}}
| party               = {{CCP flag}}
}}
'''Wu Shengli''' ({{zh|s=吴胜利}}; born August 1945) is a retired Chinese [[admiral]] who served as commander of the [[People's Liberation Army Navy]] (PLAN) from 2006 to 2017. Prior to that, he served as PLA's deputy chief of staff, commander of the [[South Sea Fleet]] and commandant principal of [[Dalian Naval Academy]].

Wu presided over the PLAN during a time of expanding Chinese maritime interests and increased regional tensions. The PLAN grew under his tenure from a coastal defense force to an emerging expeditionary force. His 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 [[Libyan Civil War (2011)|2011 Libyan Civil War]], and the commissioning of [[Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning|China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning]] in 2012.<ref name=dtic/>

== Early life and education ==
Wu Shengli was born in [[Wuqiao]], [[Hebei]] Province in August 1945.<ref name=nccu>{{cite web |url = http://cped.nccu.edu.tw/node/1140537 |title = Wu Shengli |publisher=[[National Chengchi University]] |date=5 June 2015 |language=Chinese }}</ref><ref name="china vitae">{{cite web |url = http://www.chinavitae.com/biography/Wu_Shengli |title=Biography of Wu Shengli |work=China Vitae |accessdate = 30 October 2015 }}</ref> He is the son of [[Wu Xian (politician)|Wu Xian]] ([[:zh:吴宪 (政治人物)|吴宪]]), who was a [[Red Army (China)|Red Army]] political commissar during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] and the [[Chinese Civil War]]. The elder Wu later held important political positions during the Mao years, including mayor of [[Hangzhou]] and vice governor of [[Zhejiang]] Province. Due to his parentage, Wu Shengli is considered a "[[Princelings|princeling]]" in Chinese political parlance.<ref name="dtic">{{cite web |url = https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA591531 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151120203226/http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA591531 |url-status = live |archive-date = 20 November 2015 |title = Behind the Periscope: Leadership in China's Navy |author1=Becker, Jeffrey |author2 = Liebenberg, David |author3 = Mackenzie, Peter |date = December 2013 |publisher=[[Defense Technical Information Center]] |page = 135 }}</ref><ref name="Bo2014">{{cite book |author=Zhiyue Bo |title=China's Elite Politics: Governance and Democratization |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sYuUZ5_xd3YC&pg=PA43 |year=2014 |publisher=World Scientific |ISBN = 978-981-283-673-1 |page = 43 }}</ref>

Wu enlisted in the PLA Navy in August 1964, and joined the [[Chinese Communist Party]] at the same time.<ref name="nccu" /> He 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. He did not attend naval officer training courses until 1972, when he began the captain's course at the [[Dalian Naval Academy]].<ref name="dtic" />

== Early career ==
In the 1970s and 1980s, Wu gained experience as the captain of [[frigate]]s and [[destroyer]]s. From 1984 to 1992, he served as the deputy chief of staff of the [[Shanghai Naval Base]], a major support base for the [[East Sea Fleet]], strategically located at the mouth of the [[Yangtze]] and close to China's largest city. [[Jiang Zemin]], future [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party]], was serving as [[Shanghai]] Party secretary during this time, leading some PLA-watchers to speculate that Wu may have cultivated ties with Jiang.<ref name=dtic/>

In 1992, Wu became [[chief of staff]] of the [[Fujian Support Base]] in the East Sea Fleet. In 1994, at age 49, he was appointed commandant of the Dalian Naval Academy, his alma mater and the PLA Navy's highest educational institution for surface vessel officers. He was also promoted to [[rear admiral]]. Wu rejoined the East Sea Fleet as a deputy commander in 1998.<ref name=dtic/>

In 2002, he was appointed commander of the [[South Sea Fleet]]. He was promoted to [[vice admiral]] a year later. In 2004, he moved to Beijing after being promoted to deputy chief of the [[PLA General Staff Department]], a Grade 3 (military-region leader grade) position that made him the second-highest-ranking operational officer in the PLA Navy.<ref name="dtic" />

==Command of the PLA Navy==
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. Zhang died in December 2006.<ref name="Bo2014"/> Vice Admiral [[Ding Yiping]], who was six years younger than Wu but became an alternate [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]] member five years earlier, had been groomed to be the candidate for Navy Commander.<ref name=youji/> However, Ding was penalized following the [[Type 035 submarine|Ming-class]] [[Chinese submarine 361|submarine 361]] accident in April 2003, which killed its entire crew of 70 people. In the aftermath, Ding was demoted by one grade, removing him from contention.<ref name="youji">{{cite book |author=You Ji |chapter=Meeting the Challenge of the Upcoming PLAAF Leadership Reshuffle |title=The Chinese Air Force: Evolving Concepts, Roles, and Capabilities |url = http://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/Books/chinese-air-force.pdf |year=2012 |publisher=[[National Defense University Press]] |ISBN = 978-0-16-091386-0 |page = 231 }}</ref> Wu was promoted to the rank of admiral in June 2007.<ref name="nccu" />

Wu presided over the PLA Navy during a time of expanding Chinese maritime interests, increasing regional tensions, and diversifying missions for the navy. The service has grown from a narrowly focused coastal defense force to an emerging expeditionary force. His tenure has been marked by a litany of achievements and historic firsts. These include the PLA Navy's first deployment of a counter-piracy task force to the [[Gulf of Aden]] in 2008, the successful preparation and execution of the 60th Anniversary Fleet Review in 2009, the first evacuation of foreign nationals from a distant country during the [[Libyan Civil War (2011)|2011 Libyan Civil War]], and the commissioning of ''[[Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning|Liaoning]]'', China's first [[aircraft carrier]], in 2012.<ref name="dtic" />

== Central Military Commission and Central Committee ==
Wu became a member of the [[17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]] in 2007 and of the [[Central Military Commission (China)|Central Military Commission]] (CMC) in March 2008.<ref name="china vitae" /><ref name="nccu"/> In the run up to the [[18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party]] in November 2012, some PLA-watchers expected that Wu would be named vice chairman of the CMC or defense minister. However, after the Party Congress, he remained PLA Navy commander. He was reelected a member of the [[18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|18th CCP Central Committee]] (2012–2017).<ref name="dtic" />

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{US government sources}}
{{refend}}

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{{Commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Shengli}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People's Liberation Army generals from Hebei]]
[[Category:Commanders of the People's Liberation Army Navy]]
[[Category:People from Cangzhou]]
[[Category:Dalian Naval Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Commanders of the South Sea Fleet]]
[[Category:Delegates to the 10th National People's Congress]]
[[Category:Delegates to the 11th National People's Congress]]
[[Category:Delegates to the 12th National People's Congress]]
[[Category:Members of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]]
[[Category:Members of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]]