China (PRC): The Communist Party of China (CPC/CCP) in August 2021 appointed Lt.-Gen. Wang Hai-jiang as the new military commander for the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), which borders Afghanistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, the Indian-held area of Kashmir, and Tajikistan. Gen. Wang had earlier been assistant to CPC official Chen Quanguo, the party chief for Tibet. Wang is now the CPC chief in Xinjiang. Chen was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the highest-ranking member of the CPC to be penalized thus far. Lt.-Gen. Wang is one of the People's Liberation Army's few combat-experienced military leaders, having fought in the 1979 PRC-Vietnam war. India: Vice-Chief of the Indian Air Force Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari was named to succeed retiring Chief of Air Force Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria on September 30, 2021. Iran: Iran: Iranian Pres. Ebrahim Raisi on August 11, 2021, named former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Brig.-Gen. Mohammed-Reza Ashtiani as Minister of Defense of Iran, and former Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as Interior Minister. Careeer diplomat Hos-sein Amirabollahian was named Foreign Minister. Iran: Rear Adm. Shahram Irani was named on August 17, 2021, as the new Commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, the first Sunni and Kurd to have reached the position. RADM Irani had previously been a high-level Army and Navy officer. He was born in San-andaj in the Kurdistan region of Iran in 1967 and studied marine sciences at university until 1985, subsequently becoming a navigator and ship commander. He served on different light and heavy ships and then in an "artillery frigate" and missile boat, and in support ships and Alvand-class destroyers, as well as on the IRIS Kharg, then the largest ship (a fleet replenishment ship) in the Navy. Although there were Shi'ite Kurds serving in senior posts in the Islamic Republic Armed Forces, Irani became the only Shafi'i Sunni to have reached the post. He succeeded RADM Hossein Khanzadi, who had led the Navy since 2017.
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