China

Foreign statesman 1875–1928 ✕ Assassinated

The warlord who dominated Manchuria

On June 4, 1928, the train carrying him from Beijing exploded at Huanggutun.

Zhang Zuolin rose from a late Qing soldier to the autonomous military ruler of Manchuria and one of the central figures of China's Warlord Era. Leading the Fengtian clique, he combined coercive military power with fiscal and industrial development to consolidate a regional state and later projected power into North China. His accommodation with Japan brought weapons and economic concessions, but also left him exposed to officers who wanted direct Japanese control of Manchuria. Retreating from Beijing after the Nationalist Northern Expedition, he was fatally wounded by a bomb planted by Kwantung Army officers in the Huanggutun Incident, a major precursor to Japan's wider military escalation in Manchuria.

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1879–1942 ○ Natural causes

The New Culture revolutionary who founded the CCP and led it for six years

“Only science and democracy — these two gentlemen we must take as our teachers.” — New Youth

Principal founder of the Chinese Communist Party and its first General Secretary (1921–1927). He spearheaded the New Culture Movement through the journal New Youth. Dismissed by the Comintern after the collapse of the First United Front, he later embraced Trotskyism.

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1886–1976 ○ Natural causes

Founder of the Chinese Red Army and the PLA, first among the Ten Marshals

Cornered by assassins, he told them "Don't shoot me — I'm only the cook," and survived; his men called him "Chief of the Cooks" ever after.

Commander-in-chief whose military leadership secured the Chinese Communist revolution. He joined Mao Zedong at Jinggangshan in 1928 to form the legendary Zhu-Mao Army, then elevated guerrilla warfare to a strategic art across the Long March, the war against Japan, and the Civil War. After the founding of the PRC he served as vice-chairman and chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, and was named first among the Ten Marshals in 1955. His journey from warlord general to communist, breaking an opium addiction and starting again, traces the arc of the Chinese Revolution more completely than almost any other life.

Foreign statesman 1887–1975 ○ Natural causes

Nationalist leader who combined resistance to Japan with anti-communist rule

After signing the pact with the Soviet Union in 1937, he insisted that it did not mean permitting communism to grow, explaining that Nanking could not fight Japan and the Communists simultaneously.

Chiang Kai-shek was the Nationalist Party's military and political leader, rising through the Northern Expedition of the 1920s to consolidate much of China under a government based in Nanjing. He had prioritised the civil war against the Communists, but after the Xi'an Incident accepted a united front against Japan and secured Soviet arms and aircraft through the 1937 Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. He led China's wartime resistance, then moved the Republic of China's government to Taiwan after defeat in the civil war, where he built a long authoritarian rule under martial law.

Foreign statesman 1875–1928 ✕ Assassinated

The warlord who dominated Manchuria

On June 4, 1928, the train carrying him from Beijing exploded at Huanggutun.

Zhang Zuolin rose from a late Qing soldier to the autonomous military ruler of Manchuria and one of the central figures of China's Warlord Era. Leading the Fengtian clique, he combined coercive military power with fiscal and industrial development to consolidate a regional state and later projected power into North China. His accommodation with Japan brought weapons and economic concessions, but also left him exposed to officers who wanted direct Japanese control of Manchuria. Retreating from Beijing after the Nationalist Northern Expedition, he was fatally wounded by a bomb planted by Kwantung Army officers in the Huanggutun Incident, a major precursor to Japan's wider military escalation in Manchuria.

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1879–1942 ○ Natural causes

The New Culture revolutionary who founded the CCP and led it for six years

“Only science and democracy — these two gentlemen we must take as our teachers.” — New Youth

Principal founder of the Chinese Communist Party and its first General Secretary (1921–1927). He spearheaded the New Culture Movement through the journal New Youth. Dismissed by the Comintern after the collapse of the First United Front, he later embraced Trotskyism.

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1886–1976 ○ Natural causes

Founder of the Chinese Red Army and the PLA, first among the Ten Marshals

Cornered by assassins, he told them "Don't shoot me — I'm only the cook," and survived; his men called him "Chief of the Cooks" ever after.

Commander-in-chief whose military leadership secured the Chinese Communist revolution. He joined Mao Zedong at Jinggangshan in 1928 to form the legendary Zhu-Mao Army, then elevated guerrilla warfare to a strategic art across the Long March, the war against Japan, and the Civil War. After the founding of the PRC he served as vice-chairman and chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, and was named first among the Ten Marshals in 1955. His journey from warlord general to communist, breaking an opium addiction and starting again, traces the arc of the Chinese Revolution more completely than almost any other life.

Foreign statesman 1887–1975 ○ Natural causes

Nationalist leader who combined resistance to Japan with anti-communist rule

After signing the pact with the Soviet Union in 1937, he insisted that it did not mean permitting communism to grow, explaining that Nanking could not fight Japan and the Communists simultaneously.

Chiang Kai-shek was the Nationalist Party's military and political leader, rising through the Northern Expedition of the 1920s to consolidate much of China under a government based in Nanjing. He had prioritised the civil war against the Communists, but after the Xi'an Incident accepted a united front against Japan and secured Soviet arms and aircraft through the 1937 Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. He led China's wartime resistance, then moved the Republic of China's government to Taiwan after defeat in the civil war, where he built a long authoritarian rule under martial law.