Zhang Youxia: The Formidable Strategist Behind China’s Geopolitical Rise

Who Is This Formidable Old Man?
In the photo below is Zhang Youxia, also known as Zhang Yu-xi, who will turn 75 in July. He is China’s key figure overseeing the Indo-Pakistan geopolitical vector. China’s highly effective actions in this region sparked my curiosity about the mastermind behind its geopolitical platform for influence in South and Central Asia.
The architect of this Chinese expansion is none other than General Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, and former head of the Armament Development Department. He also leads China’s manned spaceflight program, “Shenzhou.”
Like Xi Jinping, Zhang is part of the unspoken Chinese political elite known as the “red princelings,” the children of CPC leaders who founded the PRC. A close ally of Xi, their fathers fought together against the Kuomintang in the 1940s.
Zhang is the ideologist behind the development of high-tech weaponry for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and chairs the Chinese side of the Russia-China Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation.
His most significant projects include establishing advanced military aviation production facilities in Sichuan and bolstering China’s nuclear shield in the province, aimed at India. Zhang Youxia is responsible for geopolitically containing India and expanding China’s influence in Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, including the gradual rearmament of Pakistan with Chinese weaponry.