Mao Xinyu, the only grandson of Chairman Mao Zedong, will possibly become the country's youngest major general by Army Day on Aug 1 next year.

Mao Xinyu, grandson of Chairman Mao Zedong, will possibly become China's youngest major general next year. [File photo]

"It will be my great honor to get such a promotion at my age. Besides peoples' respect and concern for the Mao family, my own efforts also count and I will work harder," Mao told the Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News over the weekend.

The remarks clarified previous media reports that Mao had been promoted from senior colonel to major general in June this year, which caught the public's attention.

Mao Xinyu was born in 1970, the only child of Mao Anqing, Mao Zedong's second son. He studied history at Renmin University of China, earned a PhD at the Academy of Military Sciences and joined the army while pursuing his doctoral studies.

The 39-year-old now serves as vice director of the war theory and strategic studies department of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences. He is also a leading member of the Communist Party's Youth League and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisor.

Mao said he has been in the army for more than nine years, and army rules stipulate that anyone in the army for 10 years is entitled to pursue the major general rank.

"If there's no exception, I could be granted the rank as early as next Army Day," he was quoted as saying.

On Sept 24, Mao was employed as honorary president of the Guangzhou Vocational College of Matsuda. Shao Hua, Mao's mother, was appointed president of the school in September 2007.