Zheng Qunliang was born in January 1954 in Wafangdian, Liaoning Province. He joined the People's Liberation Army in March 1970. He served in the 41st division of the PLA Ground Force until 1974, when he entered PLAAF No. 5 Aviation Academy. He joined the Air Force upon graduation in 1977. From 1984 to 1986 he studied at the PLA Air Force Command Academy. Zheng is a top-grade jet fighter pilot. When he reached the PLAAF's compulsory non-flight age of 47, he had accumulated 2,200 flying hours. He became commander of Regiment 3 of the 1st Division in 1992, then division commander in 1997. In a transregional combat drill under no pre-set flying conditions, he led the division to a deployment at another air base, breaking PLA records for the largest number of aircraft moved on a single mission, traveling the longest distance, and the longest flying time under instrument only flight conditions. In 1999 he was the in-flight commander for the Air Force National Day Military Parade. The review formation was long, and passed the review stand at Tiananmen Square exactly on time, to the second. This exhibition won him high praise from PLAAF leaders. In 2002 he was promoted to commander of the Wuhan Air Base. He was named Chief of Staff of the Shenyang Military Region Air Force in February 2008, Deputy MRAF Commander in December 2010, and concurrently MRAF Commander and Deputy MR Commander in July 2011. In December 2012, he was transferred to the Nanjing Military Region Air Force to serve in the same concurrent positions. In July 2013, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the PLAAF. Zheng attained the rank of major general in July 2005, and lieutenant general in July 2012. In November 2012, he was elected an alternate member of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Visit to the United States
As commander of the PLAAF's elite 1st Fighter Division, Zheng was selected to participate in a PLA senior officers' delegation to visit the United States in July 2000, a sign that the PLA had identified him as a future leader in the air force. After his trip, he wrote a widely distributed article recounting his experiences visiting various U.S. Air Force bases. For instance, he noticed it took only 15 minutes for an F-15 wing to change munitions, as compared with three hours in his division. He was highly impressed that USAF F-15 fighter pilots took off in formation, even under heavy clouds below 200 meters and landed out of steep, descending turns. He was surprised to find non-commissioned officers supervising flight operations. Zheng concluded that if his commanders could be freed from such duties, they could devote their attention to more important tasks. He concluded that the more the PLA understood the U.S. military, the more the PLA would understand its own shortcomings and be motivated to catch up.
