Clockwise: Lee (Upper R), Chang, Chen, Cheng and Pu.

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Republic of China (ROC) Army General Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正), chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, will retire at the end of April to be replaced by Navy Admiral Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明), deputy national defense minister, the Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday.

Lee has served as commander of the Navy and a submarine captain. Lee's post of deputy defense minister will be taken over by Navy Admiral Pu Tze-chun (蒲澤春), vice chief and executive officer of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Pu previously served as vice commander of the Navy.

The new vice chief and executive officer of the General Staff of the Armed Forces will be Army Lieutenant General Chen Pao-yu (陳寶餘), vice chief of the Army.

Cheng Te-mei (鄭德美), deputy national defense minister responsible for armaments, will be appointed a strategic advisor to the president and his post will be taken by Army Lieutenant General Chang Guan-chung (張冠群), president of National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology.

Chen Pao-yu and Chang will also be promoted to the rank of general.

All these appointments will take effect on May 1.

Chang, who earned a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from Cornell University, will become the first army general to rise from the position of a rank-and-file research officer and the first research officer to become deputy defense minister responsible for armaments.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen, Lo Kuang-jen and Kuo Chung-han)
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