Chinese paratrooper killed in Qinghai exercise as Beijing acknowledges casualties

Beijing has confirmed that a 23-year-old paratrooper died in a training accident in northwestern China, a revelation that follows recent reports of several accidents and deaths in its military.

State media said on Sunday that Xia Shiyuan, of Huaiyuan county in Anhui province, was involved in an incident shortly after leaving an airborne aircraft during a scheduled training exercise in Golmud, Qinghai province, on the morning of May 27.

Xinhua said Xia fell to the ground and was taken to hospital, where he died at 12.32pm.

In June, Xia – who was born in 2002 and joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 2021 – was designated a martyr and posthumously awarded a third-class merit citation, according to a statement by Huaiyuan county authorities.

His ashes were returned to his hometown on August 8 and he was buried on Monday at Huaiyuan Martyrs’ Cemetery, where local authorities received him with full honours, local media said.

Xia’s death was one of two parachute-related incidents on consecutive days that were recently made public by the PLA.