Lü Zhengcao
Lü Zhengcao ( Chinese 吕正操 , Pinyin Lǚ Zhèngcāo ) (born January 4, 1905 (according to other information January 4, 1904) in Haicheng (Anshan) ; † October 13, 2009 in Beijing ) was a Chinese general of the People's Liberation Army .
Lü became a member of the Chinese Communist Party in 1937 . He fought in the war between Japan and China from 1937 to 1945 and in the Chinese civil war against the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang from 1945 to 1949.
Before becoming a communist, Lü worked as an assistant to General Zhang Xueliang of the Kuomintang. In this role he was an eyewitness to the Xi'an incident in which Zhang and another colleague general, Yang Hucheng , forced the then leader of the Chinese Chiang Kai-shek to give up the civil war against the communists in order to fight Japan.
With the Communist victory in 1949, Lü served as the seasoned military leader of the People's Republic of China. He was promoted to Shang Jiang (a general position) in 1955 when that post was newly created.
At the time of his death at the age of 104 (105?) Years he was the last of the first generals of the People's Liberation Army.
Web links
- Last of New China's first generals passes away ( Xinhua )
- Obituary article on telegraph.co.uk
Individual evidence
- ↑ 百岁 上将 吕正操 的 传奇 人生 in News of the Communist Party of China
- ↑ You Feijing and Liao Wengen, Salute to a general , China Daily Online, January 4, 2010
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lü, Zhengcao |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 吕正操 (Chinese); Lǚ Zhèngcāo (Pinyin) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chinese general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th January 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Haicheng (Anshan) |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 13, 2009 |
| Place of death | Beijing |