"PLAN Chief of Staff VADM Li Hanjun: Fast-Rising Star of Training and Education Extinguished"

On 27 June 2025, the Chief of Staff of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), Vice Admiral (VADM/海军中将) Li Hanjun (李汉军), was dismissed from his position as a deputy to China’s 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) by the Navy Servicemen’s Congress.2 The sixty-year-old Li had been serving as PLAN Chief of Staff (海军参谋长) for slightly over a year, since April 2024.3 Similarly removed from the NPC was nuclear scientist Liu Shipeng, who was a deputy chief engineer at state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation.4 In a long-anticipated move, the NPC Standing Committee simultaneously announced that it had voted to remove Admiral Miao Hua as the Director of the Central Military Commission (CMC)’s Political Work Department, where he had overseen promotions across the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). 5 These developments indicate that the trio is being subject to serious internal disciplinary measures, designed to address “corruption” as interpreted by Commander-in-Chief Xi Jinping and prevalent throughout his thirteen years as paramount leader— namely, defined as threating his command of the PLA, and possibly the ambitious missions he has assigned it. 6 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaves nothing to chance with such disciplinary measures; the termination of their official careers is a foregone conclusion.

CMSI NOTE #15 /// 30 JUNE 2025 PLAN Chief of Staff VADM Li Hanjun: Fast-Rising Star of Training and Education Extinguished Andrew S. Erickson and Christopher H. Sharman1 

Andrew S. Erickson and Christopher H. Sharman, “PLAN Chief of Staff VADM Li Hanjun: Fast-Rising Star of Training and Education Extinguished,” CMSI Note 15 (Newport, RI: Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute, 30 June 2025).

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Dr. Andrew S. Erickson (艾立信) is Professor of Strategy (tenured full professor) in NWC’s China Maritime Studies Institute. A core founding member, he helped establish CMSI and stand it up officially in 2006 and has played an integral role in its development; from 2021–23 he served as Research Director. CMSI inspired the creation of other Department of Defense research centers, which he has advised and supported; he is a China Aerospace Studies Institute Associate. Erickson has taught courses at NWC and Yonsei University, advises NWC student research and curricula, and supports NWC’s scholarly research relations with Japanese counterparts. He provides flag officer tailored education for NWC, both on and off campus; including in Honolulu, Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Naples.

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