Wu Shengli

Wu Shengli (Chinese: 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 2011 Libyan Civil War, and the commissioning of China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning in 2012.