Dong Jun

Dong Jun (born in 1961) is a Chinese admiral of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA) who has been serving as the 14th Minister of National Defense since December 2023.

He served as the Commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy from September 2021 to December 2023. On 29 December 2023, he was appointed as the Minister of National Defense to replace Li Shangfu who was removed from office two months prior to his appointment in October 2023. He is the first Minister of National Defense from the PLA Navy.

Biography
In 1978, Dong was admitted to the Dalian Naval Academy of the Navy. After graduation, he began his service with the Navy in 1979. He has successively served as the head of the military training department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Naval Command, the deputy chief of staff of the Beihai Fleet, and the commander of the Navy's 92269 unit.

In 2013, Dong was appointed deputy commander of East Sea Fleet, and held that office until December 2014, when he was appointed deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army Navy. In January 2017, he was promoted to become deputy commander of Southern Theater Command. In March 2021, he became deputy commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy, rising to commander in August 2021. He was named as the commander of the PLA Navy in September 2021. He was succeeded as commander by Hu Zhongming in December 2023.

He was promoted to the rank of rear admiral (shaojiang) in July 2012, vice admiral (zhongjiang) in July 2018 and admiral (shangjiang) in September 2021.

Minister of National Defense
On 29 December 2023, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress appointed Dong as the Minister of National Defense, making Dong the first defense minister to come from a naval background. The fact the Admiral has a naval, rather than a military, background made his appointment surprising. According to political scientist Wen-Ti Sung, the selection of Dong as the defense minister was possibly a sign of ongoing purges within the PLA Rocket Force and the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department. Unlike his predecessors, Dong is currently not a member of the Central Military Commission which meant that he does not have the decision making authority within the PLA.

On 31 January 2024, Dong met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu via teleconference, his first international engagement. During the meeting, Dong stated the militaries of Russia and China should be bolstering mutual trust and expanding cooperation to “elevate the relations between the two militaries to a higher level.” According to the transcript of the meeting released by the Russian Defense Ministry, Dong stated that China would continue to support Russia on the 'Ukraine issue', and despite pressure from the United States and the European Union, "China will not abandon its established policies and the outside world will not interfere with normal cooperation between China and Russia." When asked about Dong's statements at a press briefing, Foreign Ministry of China spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated that China's position remains unchanged and does not provide military aid to either side of the conflict. On April 11, he met with his Vietnamese counterpart Phan Văn Giang at Lào Cai province near the China-Vietnam border and the two ministers signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an emergency hotline between the Chinese and Vietnamese militaries. On April 27, he took part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defense ministers’ meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan where he met with defense ministers of Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus, and held separate talks with defense ministers of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Prior to the defense ministers meeting, on April 26, he met with high-ranking Kazakhstani politicians including President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

On 31 May 2024, Dong attended the 2024 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore where he met with United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. During the meeting, which was Austin’s first with a Chinese counterpart, the two agreed to resume military-to-military communication between the two countries while also at the same time, Austin raised the issues of Chinese military exercises near Taiwan and China's support for Russia's military industry during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On June 2, at a speech at the forum, Dong stated that China stays committed to peaceful reunification with Taiwan but "this prospect is increasingly being eroded by separatists for Taiwan independence and foreign forces." He also stated that China "will take resolute actions to curb Taiwan independence and make sure such a plot never succeeds." He also warned against U.S. arms sale to Taiwan stating that "this kind of behavior sends very wrong signals to the Taiwan independence forces and makes them become very aggressive." Regarding the ongoing confrontations between Chinese Coast Guard and Philippine fishing boats near the disputed reefs in the South China Sea, Dong stated "China has maintained sufficient restraint in the face of rights infringements and provocation" but warned that there are "limits to this."