- Yang Dezhi
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▪ 1995Chinese military official (b. 1911, Zhuzhou (Chu-chou), Hunan province, China—d. Oct. 25, 1994, Beijing (Peking), China), joined the communist People's Liberation Army (PLA) at its creation and went on to serve in virtually every major Chinese military conflict for the next 50 years, eventually becoming the army's chief of staff. Yang was raised in a peasant family in an area that Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung) heavily organized in the 1920s. Yang joined the PLA in 1927. He quickly rose through the ranks, commanding a vanguard regiment during the Long March (1934-36) and combat units during both the Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) and the struggle against the Nationalists (1945-49). Yang joined the Chinese People's Volunteers in 1951 after China decided to support North Korea, which was engaged in a blood conflict with UN forces. Yang was made commander of the Chinese forces in 1954. Upon his return to China in 1955 he was elevated to general. Yang, one of the few high-ranking officials to survive the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) with his reputation intact, was promoted to the party's Central Committee in 1967. His last post as a field officer was as deputy commander of the forces that invaded Vietnam in 1979. In 1980 he became the army's chief of staff, a position he held until his retirement in 1987. In 1989, several weeks before army tanks rolled into Tiananmen (T'ien-an-men) Square, Yang and six other retired military officials sent a letter to Premier Li Peng (Li P'eng) urging him not to allow the use of military force to crush the pro-democracy student demonstrations.
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Universalium. 2010.
