1.
Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino
2.
Cultural Revolution
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The Cultural Revolution, formally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement that took place in China from 1966 until 1976. The Revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward, the movement paralyzed China politically and negatively affected the countrys economy and society to a significant degree. The Revolution was launched in May 1966, after Mao alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society at large, to eliminate his rivals within the Communist Party of China, Mao insisted that these revisionists be removed through violent class struggle. Chinas youth responded to Maos appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country, the movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a purge of senior officials, most notably Liu Shaoqi. During the same period Maos personality cult grew to immense proportions, a large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Countryside Movement. Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed, Cultural and religious sites were ransacked. Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, after Maos death and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976, reformers led by Deng Xiaoping gradually began to dismantle the Maoist policies associated with the Cultural Revolution. In 1958, after Chinas first Five-Year Plan, Mao called for grassroots socialism in order to accelerate his plans for turning China into an industrialized state. In this spirit, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, established Peoples Communes in the countryside, many communities were assigned production of a single commodity—steel. Mao vowed to increase production to twice 1957 levels. The Great Leap was an economic failure, uneducated farmers attempted to produce steel on a massive scale, partially relying on backyard furnaces to achieve the production targets set by local cadres. The steel produced was low quality and largely useless, the Great Leap reduced harvest sizes and led to a decline in the production of most goods except substandard pig iron and steel. Furthermore, local authorities frequently exaggerated production numbers, hiding and intensifying the problem for several years, in the meantime, chaos in the collectives, bad weather, and exports of food necessary to secure hard currency resulted in the Great Chinese Famine. Food was in shortage, and production fell dramatically. The famine caused the deaths of millions of people, particularly in poorer inland regions, the Great Leaps failure reduced Maos prestige within the Party. Forced to take responsibility, in 1959, Mao resigned as the President of the Peoples Republic of China, Chinas de jure head of state
3.
Mao Zedong
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His Marxist–Leninist theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Mao adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University and became a member of the Communist Party of China. On October 1,1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China, in the following years Mao solidified his control through land reform campaigns against landlords, and perceived enemies of the state he termed as counter-revolutionaries. In 1957, he launched the Great Leap Forward campaign that aimed to rapidly transform Chinas economy from an economy to an industrial one. The campaign contributed to a famine, whose death toll is estimated at between 15 and 45 million. In 1972, Mao welcomed American President Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling a policy of opening China, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976, and died in September, aged 82. He was succeeded as Paramount leader by Hua Guofeng, who was sidelined and replaced by Deng. A controversial figure, Mao is regarded as one of the most important individuals in modern world history, Mao Zedong was born on December 26,1893 in Shaoshan village, Hunan Province, China. His father, Mao Yichang, was an impoverished peasant who had become one of the wealthiest farmers in Shaoshan. Growing up in rural Hunan, Mao Zedong described his father as a stern disciplinarian, Maos mother, Wen Qimei, was a devout Buddhist who tried to temper her husbands strict attitude. Zedong too became a Buddhist, but abandoned this faith in his mid-teenage years, at age 8, Mao was sent to Shaoshan Primary School. At age 13, Mao finished primary education, and his father united him in a marriage to the 17-year-old Luo Yigu. Mao refused to recognise her as his wife, becoming a critic of arranged marriage. Luo was locally disgraced and died in 1910, interested in history, Mao was inspired by the military prowess and nationalistic fervour of George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte. The famine spread to Shaoshan, where starving peasants seized his fathers grain and he disapproved of their actions as morally wrong, but claimed sympathy for their situation. At age 16, Mao moved to a primary school in nearby Dongshan. In 1911, Mao began middle school in Changsha, Revolutionary sentiment was strong in the city, where there was widespread animosity towards Emperor Puyis absolute monarchy and many were advocating republicanism. The republicans figurehead was Sun Yat-sen, an American-educated Christian who led the Tongmenghui society, in Changsha, Mao was influenced by Suns newspaper, The Peoples Independence, and called for Sun to become president in a school essay
4.
Zhou Enlai
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Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the Peoples Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and was instrumental in the Communist Partys rise to power, and later in consolidating its control, forming foreign policy, a skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. He helped devise policies regarding the disputes with the U. S. Taiwan. Zhou survived the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution, while Mao dedicated most of his later years to political struggle and ideological work, Zhou was the main driving force behind the affairs of state during much of the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guards damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him popular in the Cultural Revolutions later stages. As Mao Zedongs health began to decline in 1971 and 1972, Zhous health was also failing, however, and he died eight months before Mao on 8 January 1976. The massive public outpouring of grief in Beijing turned to anger towards the Gang of Four, although succeeded by Hua Guofeng, it was Deng Xiaoping, Zhous ally, who was able to outmaneuver the Gang of Four politically and eventually take Maos place as paramount leader by 1978. Zhou Enlai was born in Huaian, Jiangsu province on 5 March 1898, the Zhou family was originally from Shaoxing in Zhejiang province. During the late Qing dynasty, Shaoxing was famous as the home of such as Zhous. To move up the ladder in civil service, the men in these often had to be transferred. Even after the move, however, the continued to view Shaoxing as its ancestral home. Zhous grandfather, Zhou Panlong, and his granduncle, Zhou Junang, were the first members of the family to move to Huaian, Panlong apparently passed the provincial examinations, and Zhou Enlai later claimed that Panlong served as magistrate governing Huaian county. Zhous father, Zhou Yineng, was the second of Zhou Panlongs four sons, Zhous birth mother, surnamed Wan, was the daughter of a prominent Jiangsu official. Like many others, the fortunes of Zhous large family of scholar-officials were decimated by a great economic recession that China suffered in the late 19th century. Zhou Yineng had a reputation for honesty, gentleness, intelligence and concern for others and he was unsuccessful in his personal life, and drifted across China doing various occupations, working in Beijing, Shandong, Anhui, Shenyang, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan. Zhou Enlai later remembered his father as being away from home. Soon after birth, Zhou Enlai was adopted by his fathers youngest brother, Zhou Yigan, apparently the adoption was arranged because the family feared Yigan would die without an heir. Zhou Yigan died soon after the adoption, and Zhou Enlai was raised by Yigans widow, madame Chen was also from a scholarly family and received a traditional literary education
5.
Deng Xiaoping
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Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese revolutionary and statesman. He was the paramount leader of the Peoples Republic of China from 1978 until his retirement in 1989, after Chairman Mao Zedongs death, Deng led his country through far-reaching market-economy reforms. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary, he nonetheless was responsible for economic reforms and an opening to the global economy. Born into a peasant background in Guangan, Sichuan province, Deng studied and worked in France in the 1920s and he joined the Communist Party of China in 1923. Following the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949, Deng worked in Tibet, as the partys Secretary General in the 1950s, Deng presided over anti-rightist campaigns and became instrumental in Chinas economic reconstruction following the Great Leap Forward of 1957-1960. His economic policies, however, were at odds with Maos political ideologies, following Maos death in 1976, Deng outmaneuvered Maos chosen successor, Hua Guofeng. Some called him the architect of a new brand of thinking that combined socialist ideology with pragmatic market economy whose slogan was Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Deng possibly has ancestry from ethnically Hakka Han family in the village of Paifang, in the township of Xiexing, Guangan County in Sichuan province, approximately 160 km from Chongqing. Dengs ancestors can be traced back to Mei County, Guangdong, a prominent ancestral area for the Hakka people, Deng Xiaopings daughter Deng Rong wrote in the book My father Deng Xiaoping that his ancestry was probably but not definitely Hakka. Deng Xiaoping was born in Sichuan, Dengs father, Deng Wenming, was a middle-level landowner and had studied at the University of Law and Political Science in Chengdu. His mother, surnamed Dan, died early in Dengs life, leaving Deng, at the age of five Deng was sent to a traditional Chinese-style private primary school, followed by a more modern primary school at the age of seven. Dengs first wife, one of his schoolmates from Moscow, died aged 24 a few days after giving birth to Dengs first child and his second wife, Jin Weiying, left him after Deng came under political attack in 1933. His third wife Zhuo Lin was the daughter of an industrialist in Yunnan Province and she became a member of the Communist Party in 1938, and married Deng a year later in front of Maos cave dwelling in Yanan. They had five children, three daughters and two sons, when Deng first attended school, his tutor objected to his having the given name Xiānshèng, calling him Xixian, which includes the characters to aspire to and goodness, with overtones of wisdom. In the summer of 1919 Deng Xiaoping graduated from the Chongqing School and he and 80 schoolmates travelled by ship to France to participate in the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement, a work-study program in which 4,001 Chinese would participate by 1927. Deng, the youngest of all the Chinese students in the group, had just turned 15, wu Yuzhang, local leader of the Movement in Chongqing, enrolled Deng and his paternal uncle, Deng Shaosheng, in the program. Dengs father strongly supported his sons participation in the work-study abroad program, the night before his departure, Dengs father took his son aside and asked him what he hoped to learn in France. He repeated the words he had learned from his teachers, To learn knowledge, Deng was aware that China was suffering greatly, and that the Chinese people must have a modern education to save their country
6.
Jiang Qing
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Jiang Qing was a Chinese actress and a major political figure during the Cultural Revolution. She was the wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party. She used the stage name Lan Ping during her acting career and she married Mao in Yanan in November 1938 and served as the inaugural First Lady of the Peoples Republic of China. Jiang Qing was best known for playing a role in the Cultural Revolution. Jiang Qing served as Maos personal secretary in the 1940s and was head of the Film Section of the Communist Partys Propaganda Department in the 1950s and she served as an important emissary for Mao in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution. In 1966 she was appointed deputy director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and she collaborated with Lin Biao to advance Maos unique brand of Communist ideology as well as Maos cult of personality. In 1969, Jiang gained a seat on the Politburo, before Maos death, the Gang of Four controlled many of Chinas political institutions, including the media and propaganda. However, Jiang Qing, deriving most of her political legitimacy from Mao, Maos death in 1976 dealt a significant blow to Jiang Qings political fortunes. She was arrested in October 1976 by Hua Guofeng and his allies, though she was initially sentenced to death, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1983. After being released for treatment, Jiang Qing committed suicide in May 1991. Jiang Qing was born in Zhucheng, Shandong province on March 19,1914 and her birth name was Lǐ Shūméng. She was the child of Li Dewen, a carpenter. Her father ran his own carpentry and cabinet making shop, after Jiangs parents had a violent argument, her mother found work as a domestic servant and separated from her husband. When Jiang enrolled in school, she took the name Lǐ Yúnhè, meaning Crane in the Clouds. In 1926, when she was 12 years old, her father died and her mother relocated them to Tianjin where Jiang worked as a child laborer in a cigarette factory for several months. Two years later, Jiang and her mother settled in Jinan, the following summer, she entered an experimental theater and drama school. Her talent brought her to the attention of administrators who selected her to join a club in Beijing where she advanced her acting skills. She returned to Jinan in May 1931 and married Pei Minglun, the marriage was an unhappy one and they soon divorced
7.
Peng Dehuai
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Peng Dehuai was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and served as Chinas Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959. When he was sixteen, Peng became a professional soldier, over the next ten years Peng served in the armies of several Hunan-based warlord armies, raising himself from the rank of private second class to major. In 1926 Pengs forces joined the Kuomintang, and Peng was first introduced to communism, Peng participated in the Northern Expedition, and supported Wang Jingweis attempt to form a left-leaning Kuomintang government based in Wuhan. After Wang was defeated, Peng briefly rejoined Chiang Kai-sheks forces before joining the Chinese Communist Party, allying himself with Mao Zedong and Zhu De. Peng was one of the most senior generals who defended the Jiangxi Soviet from Chiangs attempts to capture it, Peng participated in the Long March, and supported Mao Zedong at the Zunyi Conference, which was critical to Maos rise to power. Peng was the commander in the combined Kuomintang-Communist efforts to resist the Japanese occupation of Shanxi in 1937. In 1940, Peng conducted the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a massive Communist effort to disrupt Japanese logistical networks across northern China, after the Japanese surrendered, in 1945, Peng was given command of Communist forces in Northwest China. He was the most senior commander responsible for defending the Communist leadership in Shaanxi from Kuomintang forces, the rivalry between Peng and Mao culminated in an open confrontation between the two at the 1959 Lushan Conference. Mao won this confrontation, labeled Peng as a leader of an anti-Party clique, Peng lived in virtual obscurity until 1965, when the reformers Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping supported Pengs limited return to government, developing military industries in Southwest China. In 1966, following the advent of the Cultural Revolution, Peng was arrested by Red Guards, in 1970 Peng was formally tried and sentenced to life imprisonment, and he died in prison in 1974. After Mao died in 1976, Pengs old ally, Deng Xiaoping, Deng led an effort to formally rehabilitate people who had been unjustly persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, and Peng was one of the first leaders to be posthumously rehabilitated, in 1978. In modern China, Peng is considered one of the most successful, Peng was born in 1898 in the village of Shixiang, Xiangtan County, Hunan. His personal name at birth was Dehua, Pengs family lived in a thatched-straw hut and owned approximately 1.5 acres of irrigated land, on which the family grew bamboo, sweet potatoes, tea, cotton, and various vegetables. His father also operated a bean curd shop, the income from the land and shop supported an extended family of eight people, including Peng, his three brothers, his parents, his grandmother, and a grand-uncle. Peng later described his own background as lower-middle peasant. From 1905–1907, Peng was enrolled in a traditional Confucian primary school, in 1908 Peng attended a modern primary school, but, at the age of ten, was forced to withdraw from this school due to his familys deteriorating financial situation. In 1905–1906, there was a drought in Hunan. Pengs mother died in 1905, and Pengs six-month-old brother died of hunger, Pengs father was forced to sell most of his family possessions for food, and to pawn most of his familys land
8.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
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The most popular versions were printed in small sizes that could be easily carried and were bound in bright red covers, becoming commonly known in the West as the Little Red Book. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung was originally compiled by an office of the PLA Daily as an inspirational political, the initial publication covered 23 topics with 200 selected quotations by the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and was entitled 200 Quotations from Chairman Mao. It was first given to delegates of a conference on 5 January 1964 who were asked to comment on it. On 10 January, the work was re-issued to the delegates, in bold red letters, and endorsement leaves written by Lin Biao, Maos chosen successor, that included three lines from the diary of revolutionary hero Lei Feng. This version was issued for use to the military leaders. Following discussions that expanded the book twice more—finally closing on 33 topics and 427 quotations by Mao—the commission began publishing the definitive version in May 1965, by this time, the Chinese Red Army and the entire nation were clamouring to read Maos words. The initial demand for Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung was enormous, the Ministry of Culture held special study meetings to develop a production and distribution plan. It sought assurances that the book would receive publishing priority and that there would be sufficient paper, ink, the goal was for ninety-nine percent read Chairman Maos book, according to a catalogue of publication records of the Peoples Publishing House. This disrupted plans for publishing any new volumes of The Complete Works of Marx and it also halted distribution of other ideological works. These include Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Selected Articles of Mao Zedong, single article books, in 1966, the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China approved Quotations from Chairman Mao for export. To meet overseas requirements, the editors of the Chinese Foreign Language Press made revisions neccesitated by the situation and they added a second edition preface endorsement by Lin Biao, dated 16 December 1966. On the last page, they listed the names of the publisher without an ISBN, the printer and distributor, Foreign presses operating in 20 countries contributed to the publication of 20 translations in 35 versions. The Little Red Book has produced an array of sales. Some sources claim that over 6, other editions of the book were covered in cloth, silk, leather, paper, and other materials. Most editions were produced in a functional, compact size that fitted into a pocket, were easy to carry, and could be taken out at any time for practice, learning, application. It was published in 32 other common sizes, allegedly the largest format printed on only 4 pages as large as the newspaper Reference News, today in China, the book is a symbol of Mao Zedong Thought. Admirers of Mao Zedong can frequently be found holding “The Little Red Book” gripped with their right hand waving it over their heads to show joy, the tradition of the ritual chanting of slogans originated with Lin Biao who Mao Zedong met in the Red Guard. Among the best known is, Saying Wansui in their mouths, which became a cliché of dogmatism or formalist irony
9.
Daqing
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Daqing is a prefecture-level city in the west of Heilongjiang province, Peoples Republic of China. The name literally means Great Celebration, Daqing is known as the Oil Capital of China and has experienced a phenomenal boom since oil was discovered at the Daqing Oil Field in 1959. Its population was 2,963,458 at the 2010 PRC National Census, of whom 1,415,268 lived in the area in 4 out of the total of 5 urban districts. The region began to slightly after Czarist Russia constructed the Chinese Eastern Railway through the area in 1898. The railway has a station at Sartu in todays Sartu District and it was not until 1959 that oil was discovered in the region as part of the large scale oil exploration put into motion across the Northeast China Plain. The Daqing oilfield was discovered in the late 1950s, and drilling began in 1958, the name Daqing literally means Great Celebration. On 26 May 1960, Anda City was established at former Anda town, five months later, the administrative organs of the oilfield relocated in Sartu. On 23 June 1964, the city was established Anda special administrative region, on 14 December 1979, the city was separated from Anda and was renamed Daqing after the oilfield. Since its foundation it has been advocated as a model of practice in industry. Learn from Daqing in industry was a slogan during the Cultural Revolution telling the people to use the city as an example for industrial production, the film Entrepreneurial Pioneers, made in the early 1970s, is a literary rendition of the history of Daqing. The most popular sport in Daqing is association football, the largest sports venue by capacity is the Daqing Olympic Park Stadium. Daqing is divided into 9 county-level divisions,5 districts,3 counties and 1 autonomous county. Daqing has a population of 2.9 million, of them mainly Han Chinese, with a few population of other 31 minority ethnic groups including Manchu, Mongolian, Korean, the population density is 112. 69/km², urban population density 205. 07/km². Located in the temperate zone, Daqing has a humid continental climate and is affected by the Siberian high. Generally, winter is cold with occasional snowfalls, and spring. The vast majority of the rainfall occurs during summer. The diurnal temperature variation can be up to 14 °C during the growing period, the monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −18.5 °C in January to 23.3 °C in July, and the annual mean is +4.2 °C. A majority of the precipitation falls in July and August alone
10.
Ye Jianying
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Ye Jianying was a Chinese communist general, Marshal of the Peoples Liberation Army. As the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress from 1978 to 1983, born Ye Yiwei into a wealthy Christian Hakka merchant family in Mei County, Guangdong his courtesy name was Cangbai. After graduation from the Yunnan Military Academy in 1919, he joined Sun Yat-sen and he taught at the Whampoa Military Academy, and in 1927 joined the Communist Party. However, Ye was far more fortunate than Ye Ting, who was made a scapegoat for the Cominterns failures, Ye was not blamed, and subsequently studied military science in Moscow. After returning to China in 1932 he joined the Jiangxi Soviet, however, after Zhangs fighters met up with Mao Zedongs force during the Long March, the two leaders disagreed on the subsequent move of the Chinese Red Army. Zhang insisted on turning southward to establish a new base in the inhabited by Tibetan. As a result, Zhangs communications with Comintern were cut, while Mao was able to establish a radio link, Mao would never forget the Yes contribution, observing later that Ye Jianying saved the Party, the Red Army, and the Revolution. During the Long March, Ye assisted Liu Bocheng in directing the crossing of the Yangtze River at Anshunchang and Luding Bridge, after 1936, Ye became director of the offices that liaised with the KMT, first in Xian, then in Nanjing and finally in Chongqing. He worked together with Zhou Enlai in this capacity, after the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China, Ye was placed in charge of Guangdong, which was to cost him his political career under Maos reign. He therefore declined to dispossess the landlords, and instead protected their businesses, however, Yes policies contradicted the general directives of the Party-mandated land reform, which emphasized class struggle. His policies deemed too soft, Ye and his local cadres were soon replaced by Lin Biaos, however, Mao did not forget what Ye had done for him during the Long March, and thus removed him only from political posts while preserving his military positions. As a result, until 1968, Ye remained active in military functions. After Lin Biao was overthrown in 1971, Yes influence grew, from 1973, he was also a Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Thanks to Yes support of Chairman Hua Guofeng, he was confirmed as party vice-chairman at the Eleventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1977, as such, Ye was Chinas ceremonial Head of State. Ye retired from this position in 1983 and in 1985 he withdrew completely from the Politburo and he died a little over a year later at the age of 89. Ye had married six times and had six children and his sons include Ye Xuanping, Ye Xuanning, and Ye Xuanlian. Yes granddaughter Robynn Yip, daughter of Xuanlian, is a musician based in Hong Kong. List of officers of the Peoples Liberation Army
