Li Shangfu
Li Shangfu is a Chinese aerospace engineer and general of the People's Liberation Army. He has been Director of the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission since September 2017. He previously served as Deputy Commander of the PLA Strategic Support Force and Deputy Commander of the PLA General Armaments Department. He spent 31 years working at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, including 10 years as its director.Biography
Li Shangfu was born in February 1958 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, with his ancestral home in Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province. He is the son of Li Shaozhu, a Red Army veteran and former high-ranking officer of the PLA Railway Force. Li Shangfu joined the PLA when he entered the National University of Defense Technology in 1978. After graduating in 1982, he began working at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center as a technician.
Li rose through the ranks at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center over the decades. In December 2003, he was promoted to Director of the center at the age of 45. In 2006, he attained the rank of major general. In his ten years as director of the Xichang center, Li oversaw many rocket launches, including the launch of the Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010.
After 31 years working in Xichang, Li was appointed Chief of Staff of the PLA General Armaments Department in 2013, replacing Maj. Gen. Shang Hong. A year later, he was made Deputy Director of the GAD.
In 2016, Li was appointed Deputy Commander of the newly established PLA Strategic Support Force, which is responsible for cyberspace, space, and other high-tech warfare. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in the same year. In September 2017, Li was appointed Director of the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission, the successor department of the GAD, replacing General Zhang Youxia.
In October 2017, Li was elected a member of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
On 20 September 2018, Li Shangfu, along with the Equipment Development Department, became the first persons to be sanctioned by the U.S. government for "engaging in significant transactions with persons" sanctioned under CAATSA, namely for transactions that involved ″Russia's transfer to China of Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment″.
