General who fought in Korea, commanded the Kunming region on the western front in 1979 and became chief of the General Staff
Born in Liling, Hunan, he joined the Red Army in 1928 and fought against Japan, in the civil war and in Korea. After commanding the Jinan and Wuhan military regions he took over the Kunming region in January 1979 and commanded the western front in the northwest in the war with Vietnam, while Xu Shiyou led the east. He became chief of the PLA General Staff in 1980 and died in Beijing in 1994.