Yang Shangkun

Pinyin	Yáng Shàngkūn
Simplified Chinese	杨尚昆
Traditional Chinese	楊尚昆
Function:	President of the People's Republic of China
Term of office:	April 8, 1988 - March 27, 1993
Predecessor:	Li Xiannian
Successor:	Jiang Zemin
Birthday:	August 3, 1907
Date of death:	September 14, 1998
Place of birth:	Tongnan , Sichuan , China
Wife:	Li Bozhao
Political Party :	Chinese Communist Party

Yang Shangkun (born August 3, 1907 in Tongnan , Sichuan Province , † September 14, 1998 ) was President of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993 and Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China.

Yang Shangkun, photo from the 1940s

He was one of the last veterans of the Long March . From 1956 to 1968 he held leading positions on the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but was demoted during the Cultural Revolution . In 1978 he was rehabilitated and in 1982 appointed to the Politburo. Yang belonged to the so-called "First Chinese Leadership Generation".

As president, he and Deng Xiaoping played a key role in the military repression of pro-democracy demonstrators in June 1989 in Tian'anmen Square in Beijing . His nephew, Yang Jianhua, commanded the highly disciplined 27th Army, which came from Hebei Province to quell the unrest.

Although he had tremendous influence in the People's Liberation Army , Deng Xiaoping deposed him in 1992 for trying to depose Jiang Zemin as party leader. It is known that Yang and his brother Yang Baibing had many supporters and allies in military circles and that their overthrow led to the replacement of more than half of the top officers.

Yang is considered one of the eight immortals of communist China.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/85037/138889/138891/8354740.html
2. ↑ http://www.cqvip.com/qk/80553x/200709/25385081.html
3. ↑ [1]

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Yang is the family name here, Shangkun is the first name.