Zeng Yilin

    

Senior Admiral Zeng Yilin
曾毅林
Minister of National Defense
In office 1 January 2000 – 20 May 2004
President	Ren Longyun
Preceded by	Xu Peishun
Succeeded by	Chen Rudai
Personal details
Born	(1943-12-16) December 16, 1943 Weizhou, Guangxi, Republic of China
Education	PLA Naval Academy PLA Naval Command and Staff College
Military service
Allegiance	People's Republic of China Republic of China
Branch/service	People's Liberation Army Navy Republic of China Navy
Years of service	1961–2004
Rank	Senior admiral

Senior Admiral Zeng Yilin (Chinese: 曾毅林, born 16 December 1943) is a retired Republic of China Navy officer. He was the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2004 and held several senior commands in the People's Liberation Army Navy before that.

Early life

Zeng Yilin was born in 1943 in Weizhou, now part of Beihai City in Guangxi province. The son of a fisherman, he entered the Naval Academy of the People's Liberation Army Navy in 1963 and was commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in December 1965.

Military service

After graduating the Academy, Zeng served aboard a Type 037 corvette with the Southern Ocean Fleet. He was promoted to lieutenant in July 1967 and to lieutenant commander in September 1973. With the second promotion, he commanded a Type 062 gunboat. In October 1977 he was promoted to commander and became the captain of one of the Brooke-class frigates that China had purchased from Sierra, at the time some of the most advanced ships in the People's Liberation Army Navy. In 1978 his ship took part in naval exercises with the Sierran Navy and the Royal Navy in the South China Sea, countries that were aligned with the People's Republic of China as a counterweight to the United Commonwealth at that time.

Becoming a captain in January 1979, Zeng Yilin worked at the Ministry of National Defense in Beijing at the Department of Resources Planning, involved in procuring ships and developing China's national shipbuilding program. In 1983 he attended the PLA Naval Command and Staff College and became a commodore. Zeng was placed in command of the 11th Destroyer Detachment of the Southern Ocean Fleet. In November 1987 he was promoted to rear admiral and became the chief of staff of the Fleet, and from December 1992 he was the deputy commander of the Fleet as a vice admiral. He was reassigned as the deputy chief of staff of the Navy Fleet Command in August 1994. In October 1996, Zeng was promoted to admiral and became the commander of the Southern Ocean Fleet, which had the South China Sea as its area of responsibility.

Minister of Defense

After the fall of communism and the restoration of the Republic of China in January 2000, Zeng Yilin was appointed as Minister of National Defense in the Executive Yuan of Premier Yang Wenhua. As Defense Minister his main achievement was laying the ground work for extensive military reforms later implemented in 2008 by Chen Rudai, and overseeing the change of the former People's Liberation Army to becoming the Republic of China Armed Forces.

In December 2002 he stated that China should aim to have a fleet of aircraft carriers that would be capable of projecting Chinese power overseas, which he viewed as necessary to go along with China's new role as a global economic superpower.

He retired from the military in May 2004.

Later work

Zeng Yilin was a lecturer at the Republic of China Naval Academy for several years.

Awards and decorations

China

• Order of Blue Sky and White Sun, Grand Cordon
• Order of National Glory, Grand Cordon
• Medal of the Armed Forces
• Medal of Naval Merit
• Medal of Naval Distinguished Service
• Medal of Naval Disposition