Never Rongzhen

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Never Rongzhen (1955)

Nie Rongzhen ( Chinese  聶榮臻  /  聂荣臻 , Pinyin Niè Róngzhēn ) (born December 29, 1899 in Jiangjin , † May 14, 1992 in Beijing ) was a communist military leader and industrial politician. He was one of the Ten Great Marshals of the People's Liberation Army and one of the most important representatives of the second generation of the CCP . From 1949 to 1951 he was mayor of Beijing and from 1945 to 1985 a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Youth and Studies

Never Rongzhen as an engineering student in Belgium in 1922

Nie Rongzhen was on 29 December 1899 the 25th year of the reign Guangxu , in the village Shiyanzi (石院子) of the municipality Wutan (吴滩乡) in District Jiangjin born, now a district of Chongqing . At the age of eight he began to attend a private one-class school (私塾) run by his maternal grandfather, which, however, closed after three years. After attending another private school, he finally went to a regular elementary school in Wutan in 1913, and soon afterwards to an elementary school boarding school in what was then Yongchuan County . In the summer of 1917, at the age of 17, Nie Rongzhen finally passed the Jiangjin High School entrance exam. When the May Fourth Movement broke out in Beijing in 1919 , he participated in actions by local high school students and students. The military police took control of Jiangjin Grammar School, he could no longer go to school there and decided to work in France and study at the same time, a method of broadening the horizons of the Chinese educated middle class at the time.

On December 9, 1919, he embarked in Shanghai and arrived in Marseille on January 14, 1920 . At that time there was a Sino-French educational association (华 法 教育 会, Pinyin Huá-Fǎ Jiàoyùhuì ), which arranged a place for him at the Montargis grammar school to learn French. There he met several other Chinese people, including Xiang Jingyu , Chen Yi and Deng Xiaoping , with whom he would remain friends for the rest of his life. After a while, Nie Rongzhen's money had been used up and he began to work as a student trainee in various factories: the Hutchinson rubber factory in Châlette-sur-Loing near Montargis, the Schneider & Cie steelworks . in Le Creusot , Renault car factory . Although he only did auxiliary work there, this gave him an insight into the practical work processes in various branches of industry.

From February 1921 Nie Rongzhen took part in student protests against the Beiyang government , both in front of the Chinese embassy in Paris and at the institute franco-chinois de Lyon that had just been founded . These protests were all put down by French police, and more than 100 students were expelled and sent back to China. However, Nie Rongzhen went late 1921 to Belgium, where he joined the Polytechnic Paul Pastur in Charleroi for Chemical Engineering enrolled. On June 18, 1922, Zhao Shiyan , Zhou Enlai , Li Weihan , Zheng Chaolin and a number of other Chinese students studying in France, Germany and Belgium founded the "Communist Youth Party of China" (中国 少年 共产党, Pinyin Zhōngguó Shàonián Gòngchǎndǎng ). In June 1922, Nie Rongzhen joined this organization, where he soon became a functionary, and in spring 1923 joined the CCP. In the autumn of 1924 he went to Moscow to study at the Communist University of the Working People of the East , then in a class especially for Chinese at the Military Academy of the Red Workers 'and Peasants' Army .

Military career

Lin Biao (left) and Nie Rongzhen in front of a Kuomintang plane that was captured in Zhangzhou in April 1932

In September 1925, Nie Rongzhen returned to China and began to work at the Whampoa Military Academy near Canton under Zhou Enlai as Secretary of the Political Committee (政治部) and as a political instructor. After the so-called “ Canton Putsch ” of March 20, 1926 (三 二 〇 事件) when Jiang Kai-shek proclaimed military law and arrested numerous communists, Nie Rongzhen was released in Whampoa and from then on was political commissar of the CCP with various people Military units active. From March 12, 1932, he was political commissar in the 1st Army Group of the Red Army (中国工农红军 第一 军团) commanded by Lin Biao , with whom he took part in the Long March from October 1934 , then in various campaigns against the Kuomintang .

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War on July 7, 1937, Nie Rongzhen was appointed major general in August 1937 and received a regular military post as deputy commander of the 115th Division of the 8th March Army ; The division commander was Lin Biao. Nie Rongzhen originally moved with 3,000 men to the Wutai Mountains in northern China and created a network of anti-Japanese base areas there. In 1939 he controlled an area of ​​72 counties with a total population of 12 million; by this time his force had grown to nearly a million men. The Japanese attacked the area several times, but since Nie Rongzhen had divided his men into small guerrilla units, which repeatedly ambushed the enemy, they were unable to achieve long-term success. At the 7th CCP Congress (April 23 - June 11, 1945) in Yan'an , Nie Rongzhen was elected to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party .

After the CCP and the Kuomintang reached an armistice on January 10, 1946 through the mediation of US General George C. Marshall , Nie Rongzhen released a large number of his men into civilian life. This should prove to be a mistake. In late June 1946, the Kuomintang attacked the Chinese central plain and the Red Army suffered serious setbacks. It was not until April 1947 that Nie Rongzhen was able to turn the tide. In May 1948, the CCP Central Committee decided to group the Liberated Areas in the north into "North China Military District" (华北 军区); Rongzhen never became supreme commander of the new military district. After the Red Army occupied Tianjin in December 1948 , Nie Rongzhen and Lin Biao, with Mao Zedong's consent, held peace talks with the defeated Kuomintang commander Fu Zuoyi in order to secure a non-violent surrender of Beijing (then called "Beiping"). The talks were successful: on January 31, 1949, the Beijing garrison surrendered, around 250,000 men, and the Red Army marched into the city without resistance. On September 8, 1949, Nie Rongzhen was appointed mayor of Beijing, a post to which he was re-elected in November 1949 after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. Those were difficult times: Fu Zuoyi's troops had to be integrated into the People's Liberation Army or dismissed. The fired soldiers often found no work and became bandits with hideouts in the outskirts of the city that the Beijing police had to fight. At the same time, the police faced high levels of crime in the city center. On February 26, 1951, Nie Rongzhen turned the mayor's office over to Peng Zhen .

After the " Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese People " (中国 人民 革命 军事 委员会, Pinyin Zhōngguó Rénmín Gémìng Jūnshì Wěiyuánhuì ) from the Political Consultative Conference of the Chinese People with the "Joint Program of the Political Consultative Conference of the Chinese People" adopted on September 29, 1949 Art Interim Constitution, which had been raised to the rank of constitutional organ, Nie Rongzhen was appointed Chief of Staff of the Military Commission on October 19, 1949, and on June 19, 1954 also as Deputy Chairman. On September 28, 1954, however, in connection with the adoption of the first ordinary constitution of China on September 20, 1954, the Revolutionary Military Commission was replaced by the "Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China" (中共中央 军事 委员会, Pinyin Zhōng Gòng Zhōngyāng Jūnshì Wěiyuánhuì ), in which he was then no longer represented. Instead, he changed with effect from September 29, 1954 as deputy chairman of the newly created "National Defense Council of the People's Republic of China" (中华人民共和国 国防 委员会, Pinyin Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Guófáng Wěiyuánhuì ), which was only an advisory body. He held this post until the dissolution of the Defense Council on January 17, 1975. In September 1959, Nie Rongzhen was appointed vice chairman of the CCP's Central Military Commission, a position he held until January 1987. On September 27, 1955 he was appointed field marshal (元帅) along with nine other generals.

Industrial policy

In September 1952, China introduced the planned economy. From February 1953 a delegation of 26 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the leadership of the nuclear physicist Qian Sanqiang (钱三强, 1913-1992) toured the Soviet Union for three months to learn how to get there after the 1917 October Revolution building on the basis of the old, had created an industrial nation. One result of this visit was the "Information Material for Formulating a Fifteen-Year Perspective Plan" (编制 十五 年 远景 计划 的 参考 材料), which the State Planning Commission sent to all ministries of the State Council of the People's Republic of China in late August 1954 .

Nie Rongzhen had not completed his chemical engineering degree, but in July 1955 he, the economic politician Chen Yun and Bo Yibo , who was Finance Minister of the People's Republic of China until 1953, were given the task of preparing the establishment of a Chinese nuclear industry, initially for peaceful purposes. On May 10, 1956, Field Marshal Nie, head of the Aviation Industry Commission at the Ministry of Defense since March 14, 1956, submitted a memorandum to the State Council and the Central Military Commission entitled “First views on the development of missile research in our country” (关于 建立 我国导弹 研究 工作 的 初步 意见) a. As early as March 1956, a scientific commission had been set up, which at the end of August 1956 prepared the "rough version of the outline of a perspective plan for the development of science and technology in the years 1956–1967" 》) Submitted. Starting in October, Nie Rongzhen took part in a leading position in the "Twelve-Year Science and Technology Plan" (十二年 科技 规划) project, which was soon approved and put into effect by the State Council and the CCP Central Committee. In November 1956, Nie Rongzhen was appointed deputy prime minister and took over from Chen Yi , also deputy prime minister, as the coordinator of science and technology on the State Council .

Nie Rongzhen, Wan Yi, Li Qiang and Song Renqiong in Moscow in 1957

In this capacity, he convened a meeting on April 24, 1957, in which, among other things, Grand General Chen Geng (陈赓, 1903-1961), Rector of the Military Academy of Engineering in Harbin, participated to discuss issues of rocket research and the reconstruction of Soviet rocket models . After preliminary coordination at the government level and the preparation of a catalog with negotiation points regarding the development and military applications of a nuclear industry in China as well as the means to target nuclear weapons, a delegation led by Nie Rongzhen, Chen Geng and Song broke on September 7, 1957 Renqiong , the head of the Third Ministry of Mechanical Engineering (第三 机械 工业 部, Pinyin Dì Sān Jīxiè Gōngyè Bù ), which had been responsible for the Chinese nuclear industry since 1955, to Moscow. The delegation also included nine experts, including Qian Xuesen , Wan Yi (万毅, 1907-1997), deputy head of the Second Ministry of Mechanical Engineering, which was then responsible for heavy industry, and Li Qiang (李强, 1905-1996), deputy minister for Foreign Trade and member of the Aviation Industry Commission at the Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China , chaired by Nie Rongzhen .

Although Nie Rongzhen and Li Qiang had already done preliminary work in the summer of 1957, the negotiations in Moscow dragged on for more than a month. The areas of nuclear energy, military cooperation, missiles, aircraft and long-wave radio stations were discussed in five working groups, while Nie Rongzhen was in constant contact with Prime Minister Zhou Enlai , Defense Minister Peng Dehuai and Li Fuchun (李富春, 1900–1975), the head of the State Planning Commission , was standing. On October 15, 1957, Vice-Prime Minister Nie and Mikhail Georgievich Pervukhin , Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, signed the "Agreement between the Chinese Government and the Government of the Soviet Union on the Manufacture of Novel Arms and Military Equipment and the Development of a Comprehensive Nuclear Industry in China". On the basis of this agreement, around 1,400 Soviet advisors came to China before the break with the Soviet Union in 1960. At the end of 1958, there were 111 nuclear experts, 43 geologists specializing in uranium mining and 340 military advisers. More than 250 scientific and technical cooperation projects have been carried out, including the construction of the “Chinese multi-purpose missile test base; Firing Range “(中国 导弹 综合 试验 基地; 靶场), the later Jiuquan Cosmodrome , and the Lop Nor nuclear weapons test site . The first group of Soviet missile experts arrived in Beijing on December 30, 1957, and on February 15, 1958, Nie Rongzhen was appointed coordinator for both projects.

While the Chinese government, on the one hand, was striving for a broader expansion of the country with simple means with the great leap forward - which was not undisputed even then - at the same time, on October 16, 1958, with the transformation of the Aviation Industry Commission An authority was created at the Defense Ministry in the “ Commission for Defense Technology of the People's Liberation Army ”, which should take care of high technology. Never Rongzhen became chairman of the Defense Technology Commission, and Chen Geng his deputy. One month later, on November 23, 1958, the State Commission for Science and Technology (中华人民共和国 科学 技术 委员) was created as a civilian counterpart, the predecessor organization of today's Ministry of Science and Technology , which was also chaired by Nie Rongzhen. All technical universities in the country, both military and civil, were placed under the Defense Technology Commission of the People's Liberation Army.

With his appointment as chairman of the two commissions, Nie Rongzhen was now responsible for the Chinese missile program, the development of the Chinese atomic bomb and the satellite program. When he was appointed deputy chairman of the Central Military Commission in September 1959 , his main field of activity was the development of modern weapons. After the Soviet advisors left in the summer of 1960, this turned out to be extremely difficult. In several petitions to the Central Committee of the CCP as well as to Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai personally, Nie Rongzhen emphasized that China should primarily work its way up on its own, but should also seek external help and study the results achieved by the capitalist countries. Nie Rongzhen was by no means alone in this view. In July 1962, Deng Xiaoping, then general secretary of the CCP Political Bureau , stated that it did not matter whether cats were white or black; as long as they caught mice they would all be good cats. Liu Shaoqi , President of the People's Republic of China, had made a similar statement. In the end, however, they stuck to their self-sufficiency, especially after the People's Liberation Army under Lin Biao won the Indo-Chinese border war in the fall of 1962 and detonated the first Chinese atomic bomb on October 16, 1964.

Cultural revolution

Nie Rongzhen was initially not affected by the Cultural Revolution that broke out in the early summer of 1966 . On August 12, 1966, he was elected to the Politburo at the 11th session of the 8th CPC Central Committee, and on October 27, 1966, at the Jiuquan Cosmodrome, he personally supervised the launch of a Dongfeng 2A medium-range missile that carried a nuclear warhead to the nuclear test site Lop Nor carried where it detonated precisely in the atmosphere. On January 19, 1967, at a brief working meeting of the Central Military Commission, Nie Rongzhen clashed for the first time with Jiang Qing , Chen Boda , Kang Sheng and Yao Wenyuan from the Cultural Revolution group when they demanded that the People's Liberation Army should also conduct cultural revolutionary activities. Nie Rongzhen agreed with his two field marshal colleagues Xu Xiangqian and Ye Jianying as well as with Defense Minister Lin Biao that the troops needed stability.

At a further meeting on February 16, 1967, Nie Rongzhen attacked the Cultural Revolution group again, for which he was first publicly criticized in March. However, this had no influence on Nie's work and the processes in the Defense Technology Commission of the People's Liberation Army. On June 17, 1967, he personally monitored the successful detonation of the first Chinese hydrogen bomb at the Lop Nor test site. From October 1968, Nie Rongzhen and other generals were repeatedly criticized on the pretext of being "sinister backers" (黑 后台) of deposed politicians. In February 1969, it ended with Nie Rongzhen being assigned to do simple work at the Third Chemical Plant (北京 化工 三 厂) in Songjiazhuang village on the southern outskirts of Beijing in order to come into closer contact with the masses, one of the most popular The term 下放 (Pinyin xiàfàng ) is a well-known custom practiced in the CCP since July 1941.

Then tensions with the Soviet Union escalated. On October 18, 1969, Lin Biao issued his "Order No. 1" (林 副 统帅 一号 战斗 号令, Pinyin Lín Fùtǒngshuài Yīhào Zhàndòu Hàolìng ), with which the entire armed forces of the country were put on high alert and instructed to move far scatter so as not to offer a target in the first nuclear strike threatened by the Soviet Union. The management level also left the capital: Zhu De went to Canton , Ye Jianying to Changsha and Nie Rongzhen to Handan in the south of Hebei Province . In February 1970, however, Nie Rongzhen returned to Beijing for treatment for eczema . After that, he took full part in politics again, for example at the 2nd session of the 9th Central Committee of the CCP in Lushan (August 23 - September 6, 1970). In the course of 1971 he was criticized again by Jiang Qing, but in the elections at the end of 1974 he was elected to the National People's Congress as one of 486 members of the People's Liberation Army, which forms its own constituency because of the frequent transfers . From this he was elected at its constituent meeting in January 1975 as deputy chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (Chairman of the Standing Committee was Zhu De until his death in 1976).

Reform and opening policy

After the fall of the Gang of Four on October 9, 1976 Nle Rongzhen retained its first offices in the Central Military Commission, the Standing Committee of People's Congress and the Central Committee of the CPC; in August 1977 he was re-elected to the Politburo. At a meeting of the Politburo on August 18, 1980, Deng Xiaoping , vice-chairman of the body, gave a high-profile speech in which he announced personnel changes in the National People's Congress , which were intended to keep power in the hands of a few, that is, an accumulation of offices reduce and correct the public perception that state and party are identical. Ten days before that speech, on August 8, 1980, Nie Rongzhen wrote to the CCP Central Committee to resign from his post as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. At its session on September 10, 1980, the General Assembly of the National People's Congress approved Field Marshal Nie's resignation.

Between 1983 and 1985, as part of Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening-up policy, there was not only economic measures such as opening up coastal cities to foreign investment, but also a generation change in management staff. In the spring of 1983, 650 out of 1,082 provincial cadres were replaced or their positions were canceled, and of the 656 cadres who still held leadership positions in the provinces in September 1983, 75 were left two years later. Something similar happened at the state level. On August 23, 1985, Nie Rongzhen wrote to the Central Committee, citing his age of almost 86 and poor health, asking to be allowed to withdraw from the committee. Similar resignation requests were made by 130 other senior party leaders, including Ye Jianying . A few days later it was revealed that a total of 1.1 million old cadres had asked for retirement. These resignation requests became legally binding at the Extraordinary Party Congress, which was held from September 18 to 23, 1985, and at the meeting of the Central Committee on September 24. Including Nie Rongzhen, 10 of the 27 members of the Politburo had resigned, almost all of them old generals, while almost all of the six men they replaced were civilians.

In January 1987, Nie Rongzhen also retired from the Central Military Commission. He attended Hu Yaobang's memorial service on April 22, 1989, while he was in a wheelchair. However, Nie Rongzhen was still mentally active. For example, he wrote a written criticism of Zhao Ziyang's behavior during the Beijing riots in early summer 1989, which was read out on June 21, 1989 at the expanded session of the Politburo. On the late evening of May 14, 1992, he was the last of the Ten Great Marshals to die at the age of 92.

Offices

Never Rongzhen held numerous offices in the People's Republic of China. Here is a tabular list:

Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party April 1945 - September 1985
Politburo of the Communist Party of China August 1966 - April 1969 and August 1977 - September 1985
Mayor of Beijing September 1949 - February 1951
Chief of Staff of the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Commission October 1949 - September 1954
Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Commission June 1954 - September 1954
Vice Chairman of the National Defense Council of the People's Republic of China September 1954 - January 1975
Vice Chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission September 1959 - January 1987
Member of the National People's Congress September 1954 - February 1983
Deputy Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China November 1956 - January 1975
Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress January 1975 - September 1980
Chairman of the Aviation Industry Commission at the Ministry of Defense March 1956 - October 1958
Chairman of the Defense Technology Commission of the People's Liberation Army October 1958 - July 1973
Chairman of the State Commission for Science and Technology November 1958 - June 1970

Web links

Commons : Nie Rongzhen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A little later Deng Xiaoping also worked in these factories
  2. ↑ 小溪: 1992 年 5 月 14 日 聂荣臻 逝世. In: china.com.cn. May 13, 2009, Retrieved September 2, 2019 (Chinese).
  3. ↑ 孙敏坚: 李维汉 ： 旅 欧 中国 少年 共产党 组织 部长. In: ifeng.com. June 27, 2016, Retrieved September 2, 2019 (Chinese).
  4. ↑ 苏联 红军 学校 中国 班. In: shijitongjian.com. August 1, 2013, accessed September 2, 2019 (Chinese).
  5. ↑ 刘倩: 第七届 中央 委员会. In: cpc.people.com.cn. Retrieved September 3, 2019 (Chinese).
  6. ↑ Stephen Uhalley Jr .: A History of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 1988, p. 69.
  7. ↑ Ben Cahoon: Beijing. In: worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
  8. ↑ 中国 十大 元帅 排名. In: todayonhistory.com. July 7, 2016, accessed September 3, 2019 (Chinese).
  9. ↑ 舒云: 共和国 十大 元帅 不同 的 葬礼. In: cpc.people.com.cn. Retrieved September 3, 2019 (Chinese).
  10. ↑ “十二年 科技 规划” 的 制定 、 作用 机器 启示. In: cas.cn. August 25, 2006, Retrieved September 4, 2019 (Chinese). In September 1956, Nie Rongzhen was re-elected to the CCP Central Committee.
  11. ↑ In 1958 this responsibility went to the Second Ministry of Mechanical Engineering, which was again headed by Song Renqiong.
  12. ↑ 梅世雄 、 毛 俊: 第 一个 导弹 火箭 研究 机构 —— 国防部 五 院 ： 中国 航天 梦 的 起点. In: xinhuanet.com. July 10, 2016, accessed September 6, 2019 (Chinese).
  13. ^ Mori Kazuko: A Brief Analysis of the Sino-Soviet Alliance: The Political Process of 1957-1959. (PDF) In: Parallel History Project . Accessed September 4, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Stephen Uhalley Jr .: A History of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 1988, p. 127.
  15. ↑ 梁 东 元: 彭德怀 点将 筹建 导弹 发射场. In: chinawriter.com.cn/. January 9, 2007, Retrieved September 5, 2019 (Chinese).
  16. ↑ Mark Wade: Gaidukov, Lev Mikhailovich in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 5, 2019 (English).
  17. ↑ Stephen Uhalley Jr .: A History of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 1988, pp. 133-137.
  18. ↑ Breath of the Dragon. In: spiegel.de. June 26, 1967. Retrieved September 4, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Mao aimed atomically. In: spiegel.de. June 26, 1967. Retrieved September 4, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Cavalry guarding China's atomic bombs. In: spiegel.de. June 30, 1969, Retrieved September 4, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Stephen Uhalley Jr .: A History of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 1988, p. 60.
  22. ↑ 李丹慧: “林 副主席 第一 号令” 全军 进入 一级 战备. In: news.sina.com.cn. June 22, 2006, Retrieved September 6, 2019 (Chinese).
  23. ↑ In the 2nd and 3rd legislative periods, ie 1959–1975, Nie Rongzhen sat for the Sichuan constituency in the People's Congress, in the 1st legislative period (1954–1959), and then again in the 5th (1978–1983) for the People's Liberation Army.
  24. ↑ Stephen Uhalley Jr .: A History of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 1988, pp. 195f.
  25. ↑ Stephen Uhalley Jr .: A History of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 1988, pp. 219f.
  26. ↑ 1989 年 胡耀邦 追悼会 ： 邓小平 李鹏 等 出席. In: news.ifeng.com. April 15, 2013, Retrieved September 6, 2019 (Chinese).
  27. ↑ 舒云: 共和国 十大 元帅 不同 的 葬礼. In: cpc.people.com.cn. Retrieved September 6, 2019 (Chinese).
  28. ↑ 聂荣臻 传. In: cpc.people.com.cn. Retrieved September 6, 2019 (Chinese).
personal data
SURNAME Never, Rongzhen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese military leader, one of the Ten Great Marshals
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Jiangjin
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1992
Place of death Beijing