Marshal who commanded the Jin-Cha-Ji base and then ran the “two bombs, one satellite” nuclear and missile programme
As head of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission from 1958, Nie directed China's nuclear programme: "…we must develop advanced weapons, missiles and atomic bombs, so that we have the minimum means of reprisal…"
From Sichuan, he studied in France, Belgium and the Soviet Union and was a political instructor at Whampoa. Political commissar of Lin Biao’s First Army Corps on the Long March, he founded and commanded the Jin-Cha-Ji base in north China during the war with Japan and was mayor of Beijing after the civil war. Made a marshal in 1955, from 1956 he was the vice-premier for science and technology and, after the Soviet advisers left, ran the defence-science programme that produced the atomic bomb in 1964, the hydrogen bomb in 1967 and a satellite in 1970. He was the last of the ten marshals to die, in 1992.
Also known as: Nieh Jung-chen
Activities and affiliations
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1923–1992
Military command
- Member of the CCP Politburo1966–Political and party leadership
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1925–1926
Republic of China state institutionsWhampoa Military Academy political instructor
Military command -
1927–1949
Chinese Communist revolutionary forces (before 1949)Red 1st Army Group commissar; Jin-Cha-Ji and North China MR commander
Military command -
1949–
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMayor of Beijing
Government and administration -
1950–1953
People’s Republic of China state institutionsActing Chief of the PLA General Staff
Military command -
1956–
People’s Republic of China state institutionsVice Premier (science and technology)
Government and administration -
1959–1987
People’s Republic of China state institutionsVice Chairman of the Central Military Commission
Military command -
People’s Republic of China state institutionsChairman of the National Defence Science and Technology CommissionMain
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1920–1924Work-study in France and Belgium; joined the CCP in 1923; military training in Moscow
- 1925–1926Political department secretary and instructor at the Whampoa Military Academy
- 1927Nanchang uprising; party representative of Ye Ting’s 11th Army
- 1932–1935Political commissar of the Red 1st Army Group; organized the Dadu River crossing on the Long March
- 1937–1945Commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region
- 1948–1949Commander of the North China Military Region; took part in the Pingjin campaign
- 1949Mayor of Beijing
- 1950–1953Acting Chief of the PLA General Staff
- 1955Marshal of the People’s Republic of China
- 1956Vice Premier for science and technology
- 1958–1975Chairman of the National Defence Science and Technology Commission
- 1959–1987Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (interrupted in the Cultural Revolution)
- 1966Elected to the CCP Politburo
Related historical events
- 1924–1927The first united front, the Northern Expedition and the catastrophe of 1927Party representative of the 11th Army at NanchangTook part in the Nanchang Uprising as party representative of Ye Ting's 11th Army.
- 1927–1936From Jinggangshan to Yan’an: the soviet bases and the Long Marchpolitical commissar of the First Army CorpsHe was political commissar of Lin Biao’s First Army Corps on the Long March.
- 1937–1945The war with Japan and the second united frontCommander of the Jin-Cha-Ji baseFounded and commanded the first anti-Japanese base in north China.
- 1945–1949The Chinese Civil WarNorth China commander; General Front Committee of PingjinHe attacked Zhangjiakou and with Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan led the peaceful takeover of Beiping.
- 1949Establishment of the People’s Republic of ChinaCommander of the founding paradeAs North China commander he led the parade of some 16,000 troops on 1 October.
- 1949–1956From New Democracy to socialist transformationDrafter of the First Five-Year PlanHe joined Zhou Enlai’s planning team in 1952.
- 1966–1976The Cultural RevolutionMarshal named in the “February Countercurrent”The 1981 Resolution lists him among the leaders who criticised the errors of the Cultural Revolution in February 1967.
Drafting the 1961 Fourteen Articles on Science
While directing the National Defense Science and Technology Commission from 1958, Nie also took part in setting the rules under which scientific research more broadly was conducted. In 1961 he oversaw the drafting of the Fourteen Articles on Science, a document that described intellectuals as members of the working class, stated that Communist Party members should respect the views of non-Party scientists, and held that scientists should have five-sixths of their time set aside for research work. Coming amid the intensified political pressure on intellectuals after the Great Leap Forward, the articles sought to guarantee research time institutionally for scientific and technical personnel. Since Nie was himself the man commanding large technological undertakings in the defence field, this effort to fix the conditions of expertise in a normative document connects to the organisational base that sustained the later nuclear and missile programme. How far the Fourteen Articles were actually enforced, and how they were treated during the Cultural Revolution, cannot be established from the available source alone.