Chen Yi

Early Life and the Nanchang Uprising

Chen Yi was born on 26 August 1901 in Lele Township, Leshan, Sichuan Province. He studied in France on a work-study programme in the early 1920s, where he became politically radicalised and joined the CPC. Returning to China, he participated in the Nanchang Uprising of August 1927 and, when it failed, retreated with Zhu De's forces toward the coast before eventually joining Mao Zedong on Jinggang Mountain. He was one of the earliest commanders to forge the coalition that became the Red Army.

Southern Guerrilla Warfare

When the main Red Army began the Long March in 1934, Chen Yi was left behind in southern Jiangxi due to wounds sustained in battle. For three years he commanded a guerrilla remnant in the mountains of Jiangxi and Fujian — a desperate episode known as the "three-year guerrilla war" — operating without external contact or resupply. This experience of independent command under extreme conditions shaped his subsequent military thinking and gave him a reputation for resilience that distinguished him from commanders who had completed the Long March.

New Fourth Army and the Wannan Incident

After the formation of the New Fourth Army (新四军) in 1937 to fight Japan in central China, Chen Yi served under commander Ye Ting and later effectively led the army after the catastrophic Wannan Incident (皖南事变) of January 1941, in which Nationalist forces ambushed and destroyed the New Fourth Army headquarters, killing or capturing over 7,000 soldiers. Chen Yi helped reconstitute the army in northern Jiangsu and became its effective commander, coordinating guerrilla operations across Jiangsu, Anhui, and Shandong.

Huaihai Campaign

Chen Yi commanded the East China Field Army — later redesignated the Third Field Army — through the decisive Huaihai Campaign (November 1948 – January 1949), one of the three great campaigns that shattered Nationalist power. Alongside Su Yu, who handled much of the tactical planning, he directed the encirclement and destruction of over 550,000 Nationalist troops across the Xuzhou region. The scale of the victory made him one of the most prominent military commanders of the Civil War's final phase.

Crossing the Yangtze and Liberation of Shanghai

Chen Yi commanded the Third Field Army's crossing of the Yangtze River in April 1949 — the central thrust of the three-army operation. His forces secured the Nanjing sector and entered the Nationalist capital on 23 April. The subsequent assault on Shanghai (12 May – 27 May 1949) was the most complex operation of the campaign: fighting in China's largest city without destroying its commercial and industrial infrastructure, which the CPC intended to inherit intact. Chen Yi became the first Mayor of Shanghai after liberation, a position he held until 1958.

Foreign Minister and Cultural Revolution

In 1958 Chen Yi was appointed Foreign Minister, a post he held until 1972. He oversaw China's diplomacy during the Sino-Soviet split, the border conflicts with India (1962) and the Soviet Union (1969), and China's support for North Vietnam. He was one of the few senior figures who publicly challenged Red Guards at their height, telling student activists in 1966 that he refused to bow his head — a display of defiance that made him a Cultural Revolution target. He was placed under investigation in 1967 and never recovered his former standing. Chen Yi died on 6 January 1972, and Mao Zedong attended his funeral in a gesture that signalled partial rehabilitation.