Xu was born in
Penglai County (now Penglai District of
Yantai),
Shandong, on 9 December 1932. He was a soldier of the
Republic of China Armed Forces before being captured by the
Fourth Field Army during the
Liaoshen campaign. He was conscripted into the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) in 1948, and joined the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1950. During the late
Chinese Civil War, he was present at the
Pingjin campaign, the , and the
Guangxi campaign. After founding of the Communist State, in 1950, he participated in the
Korean War. In 1985, he was promoted to deputy chief of the
People's Liberation Army General Staff Department, he remained in that position until July 1995, when he was appointed president of the
PLA Military Sciences Academy. He was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant general (
zhongjiang) in 1988 and
general (
shangjiang) in 1994. On 5 January 2005, he died from an illness in
Beijing, at the age of 72. ==References==