Tan Kefei, the seventh spokesperson of China's Ministry of National Defense. Photo: website of Ministry of National Defense

China's Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Thursday welcomed its new spokesperson Tan Kefei, the seventh person took the post since the establishment of the ministry's spokesperson system in 2007. 

Born in 1975 in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Tan was admitted into the People's Liberation Army Foreign Languages Institute in 1994. 

Tan obtained his Master's degree in law at the Law School of Peking University. In December 2019, he became deputy director of the Information Office of the defense ministry, according to the MND website. 

Global Times learned that Tan was an outstanding student and was admitted into the military academy with a passion to serve the country. 

He passed the National Judicial Examination, or China's bar exam, and obtained his legal professional qualification certificate. 

Tan is also not an unfamiliar face to people in the military system. Global Times learned that Tan has worked in both grass-roots units and core military organs like the general office and legal affairs commission of the Central Military Commission.

During his years at General Office of the Central Military Commission, Tan participated in a number of military legislation and international legal affairs.

He has been involved in the legal aspects of military press releases for a long time, so instead of starting from scratch, Tan is actually stepping forward from behind the scenes.

The ministry has three spokespersons currently. Wu Qian serves as director and spokesperson of the ministry's Information Office. Ren Guoqiang serves as the spokesperson and vice head of the office, Chinanews.com reported. 

All three hold the rank of senior colonel.

The PLA's overseas exchanges and operations have become broader and more frequent in recent years, ranging from the Chinese navy's escort mission in waters off Somalia in the Gulf of Aden to China's peacekeeping operations. Analysts believe that Tan's working experience and legal background will be conducive to press release work at the MND.