Huang Wei
黄维
1904–1989
- Lieutenant General, National Revolutionary Army
- Commander, 12th Army Corps
Biography
Military Career
Huang Wei (1904-1989) was born in Guixi, Jiangxi, and graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy's first class alongside Du Yuming. He served in the Northern Expedition and the Second Sino-Japanese War, rising to command the 12th Army Corps — one of the Nationalist army's best-equipped formations — by the time of the civil war.
Encirclement at Shuangduiji
Dispatched from the west to relieve encircled Nationalist forces, Huang Wei's 12th Army Corps was itself surrounded by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping's Central Plains Field Army at Shuangduiji in late November 1948. Despite repeated breakout attempts, the corps was annihilated on 15 December. Huang Wei was captured as his command collapsed.
Long Captivity
Huang Wei became known as one of the most intractable prisoners held by the PRC, refusing to cooperate with political re-education programmes. He was the last senior Nationalist war criminal to be pardoned, finally released in 1975 — over a decade after most of his contemporaries. He died in Beijing in 1989.