Wei (rank)

Wei (尉) is the rank held by company-grade officers in the military of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. It currently exists in three grades, shao wei (少尉), zhong wei (中尉) (chung wei using Wade–Giles), and shang wei (上尉). An additional grade, da wei (大尉), formerly existed in the People's Liberation Army, during the period 1955-1965. However when the use of rank and insignia was restored in 1988, this rank was not re-established. As opposed to the Western tradition of using different names for equivalent ranks in the army and navy, Chinese armed forces use the same rank names for all services, prefixed in the case of the PLA by hai jun (海军) (naval force) or kong jun (空军) (air force).