Chinese President Xi Jinping has moved out General Zhao, the PLA's powerful Western Theatre Commander, who was seen as the man responsible for the seven-month long military standoff with India in eastern Ladakh, the Hindustan Times has reported. Gen Zhao has been replaced with General Zhang Xudong, who has never served along the Indian border. The change of guard in the leadership of the Western Theatre Command has sparked hope in New Delhi that General Zhao’s replacement may not be as vitriolically anti-India, the report said. Gen Zhao, who had also engineered the 2017 Doklam conflict with India, has been seen as a hardliner against India and Bhutan.