Commander of the 359th Brigade at Nanniwan, of the First Army Corps that entered Xinjiang in 1949, and later vice-president of China
A railway worker from a poor peasant family in Liuyang, Hunan, he joined the Communist Party in 1927, was a political commissar in the Red 8th Army and Sixth Army Corps, and on the Long March stood with Ren Bishi and He Long against Zhang Guotao’s split. In the war against Japan he led the Eighth Route Army’s 359th Brigade, turning the wasteland of Nanniwan into farmland as a model of self-sufficiency. At the Second Plenum in March 1949 he volunteered to march into Xinjiang; as commander and political commissar of the First Army Corps he took Xi’an and then entered Xinjiang, becoming secretary of the party’s Xinjiang branch and acting commander of the Xinjiang Military Region. He later commanded the Railway Corps, served as minister of agricultural reclamation and vice-premier, and was vice-president of China in 1988–1993. He was known as a harsh critic of political liberalisation.
Also known as: Wang Huzi
Activities and affiliations
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1927–1949
Chinese Communist revolutionary forces (before 1949)Commander, 359th Brigade
Military command -
1927–1993
Political and party leadership
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1949–1956
People’s Republic of China state institutionsCommander of the Xinjiang Military RegionMain
Military command -
1956–1993
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMinister of Agricultural Reclamation, vice-premier, vice-president
Government and administration
Career Timeline
- 1927Joined the Communist Party
- 1934Political commissar, Red Sixth Army Corps
- 1940sNanniwan reclamation with the 359th Brigade
- 1949Commander and commissar, First Army Corps; took Xi’an and marched into Xinjiang
- 1949–1952Secretary of the party’s Xinjiang branch; acting commander, Xinjiang Military Region
- 1954Commander and commissar, PLA Railway Corps
- 1955Rank of colonel general
- 1956Minister of Agricultural Reclamation
- 1975Vice-premier of the State Council
- 1988–1993Vice-president of the People’s Republic of China
Related historical events
- 1949Establishment of the People’s Republic of ChinaCommander of the First Army Group that entered XinjiangHe entered Xinjiang in October 1949 and reached Dihua in November.
- 1976–1992Reform and opening: the Deng Xiaoping eraElder who pressed for Hu Yaobang’s removalHe joined the Politburo at the Third Plenum of 1978 and in December 1986 went with Hu Qiaomu, Deng Liqun and Bo Yibo to blame Hu Yaobang before Deng.