Ye Jianying

Military Elder and Kingmaker

Ye Jianying was born on 28 April 1897 into a Hakka merchant family in Meixian, Guangdong. He entered the Yunnan Military Academy's artillery programme in 1917, graduating with distinction in December 1919. After the Whampoa Military Academy was founded in 1924, he served as Deputy Director of its Faculty Department, subsequently taking part in the two Eastern Expeditions and the suppression of the Guangzhou Merchants' Corps uprising; in July 1927 he secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party with Zhou Enlai's approval. In August 1927, on the eve of the Nanchang Uprising, he was serving as chief of staff of the Nationalist 4th Army under Zhang Fakui; on learning of a plot by Wang Jingwei to move against Ye Ting and He Long, he took the risk of warning them, allowing the uprising to proceed as planned, and afterward persuaded Zhang Fakui not to pursue the retreating rebel force. He went on to hold senior command and staff posts -- including Chief of Staff of the Red Army, the Eighth Route Army, and the Central Military Commission -- through the Sino-Japanese War and civil war, and on 27 September 1955 was named one of the ten Marshals when the PRC introduced military ranks. After 1949, he held a series of senior positions, including chairman of the Beiping Military Control Commission and mayor of Beiping, Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Government and mayor of Guangzhou, and President of the Academy of Military Science. His greatest historical significance, however, came from his role in two decisive moments of political transition.

Surviving the Cultural Revolution

During the Cultural Revolution, Ye Jianying managed to navigate the chaos without being destroyed -- a feat that required constant political calculation. He maintained connections with Zhou Enlai and avoided direct confrontation with either the Gang of Four or Lin Biao's faction. In February 1967 he openly criticised Cultural Revolution excesses at a Central Military Commission meeting -- part of what became known as the 'February Countercurrent' -- and was subsequently criticised and saw his practical influence curtailed, though his nominal posts, including Vice Chairman of the CMC and Politburo membership, were not stripped from him. When Lin Biao died in 1971, Ye's position strengthened and he resumed day-to-day management of the CMC. By the mid-1970s he was one of the most senior and respected figures in the military establishment, with a reputation for caution, loyalty to the institution of the PLA rather than to any faction, and deep connections among the officer corps. In August 1973, the 10th Party Congress elected him to the Politburo Standing Committee and as a Vice Chairman of the Central Committee; in January 1975 he became Minister of National Defence.

The October Coup

On 6 October 1976, Ye Jianying played one of the central roles in the arrest of the Gang of Four. Working together with Hua Guofeng and Wang Dongxing, Ye helped arrange for Unit 8341 -- the Central Security Regiment responsible for protecting Politburo members -- to carry out the detentions. Ye's military authority and his relationships with garrison commanders in Beijing are considered to have been important in ensuring that no armed resistance materialised. The operation was completed without bloodshed. Because the decision-making process was never documented in publicly available primary archives, existing research relies heavily on participants' memoirs and oral histories, and historians continue to disagree on the precise weight of Hua Guofeng's, Ye's, and Wang Dongxing's respective roles: some emphasise Hua's unique position as the only one with the standing to convene top-level meetings and initiate the decision, while others credit all three as jointly decisive. Ye subsequently served as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (March 1978 – June 1983) -- effectively the head of state.

Supporting Deng's Return

Ye Jianying also used his influence to support Deng Xiaoping's rehabilitation and eventual return to power. He served as a bridge between the military old guard and Deng's reform agenda, providing crucial legitimacy. In September 1982, the 12th Party Congress revised the Party constitution and abolished the post of Vice Chairman of the Central Committee, ending his tenure in that role. In September 1985, at a National Conference of the Communist Party, Ye and a number of other veteran leaders requested to step down from the Central Committee and the Politburo Standing Committee, formally withdrawing from active politics at the age of 88; he died in Beijing on 22 October 1986, at the age of 89. He is remembered in official Chinese historiography as one of the 'marshals who saved the Party' -- though his exact role in the complex events of 1976 remains the subject of careful historical scrutiny.