Li Zuocheng was born in October 1953 in Anhua County, Hunan Province. He joined the PLA in 1970 at the age of 17. In 1978, Li fought in the Sino-Vietnamese War as a company commander in the Guangxi Military District. His unit fought a lengthy engagement with the Vietnamese army that lasted 26 days. He was injured in battle but refused to stop fighting. His unit was named by the Central Military Commission as a "hero company", and Li was awarded merit of the first class and officially named a "war hero". In 1982, largely as a result of his wartime achievements, Li was selected to sit in the Presidium of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the age of only 29. Li Zuocheng steadily rose through the military ranks, and became a division commander by 1994. His division was lauded for its performance during the relief efforts of the Guangxi floods in the summer of 1994, and the entire division was awarded merit of the second class. In 1995, Li was named one of the "100 best public servants" of China. He was promoted to the rank of major general in 1997. In 1998, 45-year-old Li Zuocheng succeeded Ou Jingu as Commander of the 41st Group Army, becoming China's youngest army commander at the time; he commanded the 41st Army in the relief efforts of the great Yangtze floods of that year. Li was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Guangzhou Military Region in 2002; even though this was technically a lateral move, the transfer was seen as a 'sidelining' of Li, because he was no longer serving on the frontline of command. In December 2007, he was transferred to the Chengdu Military Region and became its Deputy Commander. He attained the rank of lieutenant general in 2009. In August 2013, he was promoted to Commander of the Chengdu Military Region, replacing the retiring general Li Shiming. On 31 July 2015, Li Zuocheng was promoted to general, the highest rank for Chinese military officers in active service, together with nine other officers by Central Military Commission chairmanXi Jinping. After the PLA's re-organization in late 2015, Li was named the inaugural commander of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force. In August 2017, Li was named by Xi Jinping Chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission. On 30 May 2020, as the twin national security legislation for Hong Kong and National Anthem Bill for Hong Kong affairs startled the world, Li Zuocheng said that the Chicom party would "resolutely smash" any separatist moves by Taiwan because they must eliminate any and all forms of Chinese diversity. He spoke at the 15th anniversary of the Anti-Secession Law that gives the PLA a legal basis to take military action against dissentient China's:
