Chen Xilian
| Chen Xilian | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈锡联 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 陳錫聯 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Chén Xīlián |
Chen Xilian (pronounced [ʈʂʰə̌n ɕíli̯ɛ̌n]; January 1915 – June 1999) was a general of People's Liberation Army of China and a member of the Central Committee Politburo.
Chen was born in Hong'an County, Hubei Province of China in 1915. He joined his local Chinese Red Army guerrilla unit in 1929, and the Communist Youth League a year later. He was an army general from 1955 and a year later an Alternate Member of the 8th Central Committee (CC). Chen was a member of the CPC Politburo through three party congresses (1969–80), but fell afoul of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms and was demoted with three colleagues (Wu De, Ji Dengkui and Wang Dongxing) dubbed the “Small Gang of Four” to mere CC status in February 1980. Chen was assigned to the Standing Committee of the party Central Advisory Committee in September 1982.
In the early 1930s, Chen Xilian served in the 4th Front Army as a political instructor and communications man, moving up the ranks to Regiment political commissar in 1934. His unit, which was led by Zhang Guotao, Xu Xiangqian and Li Xiannian, included such future leaders as Qin Jiwei. They fought Sichuan warlords on the western leg of the Long March. At the close of the Long March, Chen – like his colleagues Xu Shiyou and Yu Qiuli – would find himself on the wrong side of the Mao Zedong-Zhang Guotao dispute, and badly battered by Muslim cavalry and warlord armies. After the fighting, Chen emerged as a division commander and reached Yan'an in late 1935. He was assigned to the 129th Division of Eighth Route Army, which later became the core of the 2nd Field Army of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping.
...
Wikipedia