Nie Rongzhen

Military serviceAllegiance Chinese Communist Party
 People's Republic of ChinaBranch/service People's Liberation Army Ground ForceYears of service1923–1987Rank Marshal of the People's Republic of ChinaCommands

• Commander, 115th Division, Eighth Route Army
• Commander, Northern China Military Region Field Army

Battles/wars

• Northern Expedition
• Chinese Civil War
  • Long March
• Sino-Japanese War
  • Hundred Regiments Offensive

AwardsChinese nameSimplified Chinese聂荣臻Traditional Chinese聶榮臻

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Niè Róngzhēn
Wade–Giles	Nieh Jung-chen

Nie Rongzhen (Chinese: 聂荣臻; pinyin: Niè Róngzhēn; Wade–Giles: Nieh Jung-chen; December 29, 1899 – May 14, 1992) was a Marshal of the People's Republic of China. He died as the last People's Liberation Army (PLA) marshal.

Biography

Nie was born in Jiangjin County in Sichuan (now part of Chongqing municipality), the cosmopolitan and well-educated son of a wealthy family. In his 20s, Nie applied to the Université du Travail (University of Labour) in Charleroi, Belgium, with a scholarship from the Socialist Party, and was thus able to study science in Charleroi.

Political leanings

Zhou Enlai spent a night in Charleroi and met with Nie. Nie agreed to join the group of Chinese students in France on a work-study program, in which he studied engineering and became a protégé of Zhou Enlai. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1923.

A graduate of the Soviet Red Army Military College and Whampoa Academy, Nie spent his early career first as a political officer in Whampoa's Political Department, where Zhou served as the Deputy Director, and in the Chinese Red Army.

World War II

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he was first assigned as the deputy division commander of the 115th division of the Eighth Route Army, with the commander being Lin Biao, and in the late 1930s he was given a field command close to Yan Xishan's Shanxi stronghold.

Civil War

In the Chinese Civil War he commanded the Northern China Military Region, and with his deputy Xu Xiangqian, his force defeated Fu Zuoyi's forces in Tianjin near Beijing in the Pingjin campaign alongside Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan. During the Korean War, Nie took part in high level command decision making, military operations planning, and shared responsibility for war mobilization. Nie was promoted to marshal in 1955 and later ran the Chinese nuclear weapons program.

He established the Bayi School in 1947.^[1]

Chinese nuclear programme

By spring 1969, "The whole Chinese nuclear weapons program [was] under the authority of Nieh Jungh-chen [Rongzhen], the head of the Seventh Ministry for Machine Building."^[2]

Purge and rehabilitation

He was purged during the Cultural Revolution, but was later rehabilitated and became vice chairman of the Central Military Committee, which controlled the nation's armed forces, and also became the vice chairman of the National People's Congress. He retired in 1987 and died in Beijing.

Personal life

Nie had a daughter with Zhang Ruihua (张瑞华) in 1930, named Nie Li. Li and Zhang Ruihua were imprisoned by the Kuomintang in 1934 and reunited with Nie in 1945. Nie Li was the first woman to be a lieutenant general in the PLA.^[3]

See also

• List of officers of the People's Liberation Army
• Historical Museum of French-Chinese Friendship

References

Citations

Sources

Government offices
Preceded by Ye Jianying	Mayor of Beijing 1949–1951	Succeeded by Peng Zhen
New title	Director of State Science and Technology Commission 1958–1970	Next: Fang Yi
Military offices
Preceded by Xu Xiangqian	Chief of the General Staff of the CPG People's Revolutionary Military Commission (acting) 1950–1954	Succeeded by Su Yu as the Chief of the General Staff of the PLA