Facts: - allegiance: people 's republic of china - commands: general armament department , general staff department - birth date: 1941 7 - name: chen bingde - branch: 25px people 's liberation army - image: gen. chen bingde.jpg - birth place: nantong , jiangsu , china - rank: general Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of chen bingde .
chen bingde -lrb- ; born july 1941 in nantong , jiangsu -rrb- is a retired general -lrb- '' shang jiang '' -rrb- in the people 's liberation army -lrb- pla -rrb- .he was the director-general of the general armaments department until september 2007 .in this position he acted as the head of the space program of china .he then served as chief of the pla general staff department .he retired in 2012 , and was succeeded by general fang fenghui as chief of general staff .