Liao Yaoxiang

Training and the Burma Campaign

Liao Yaoxiang (16 May 1906 – 2 December 1968), courtesy name Jianchu, was born in Shaoyang, Hunan. After graduating from the sixth class of the Whampoa Military Academy, he was sent to France in 1930, studying French for three years before entering the French military academy at Saint-Cyr — one of the very few Nationalist officers trained in Europe. After returning to China he fought in the Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Nanjing, and from 1938 served as major general chief of staff of the 200th Division and deputy commander of the New 22nd Division. In March 1942 he led the New 22nd Division into Burma as part of the Chinese Expeditionary Force's 5th Army, inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese 55th Division at the Battle of the Swa River, then fought a 12-day delaying action at Pyinmana to cover the main force's withdrawal; when the Burma campaign collapsed and his retreat route was cut off, the division fought its way into India under severe hardship. In 1943 the New 22nd Division regrouped and retrained at Ramgarh, India, merging with Sun Li-jen's New 38th Division to form the New 1st Army of the Chinese Army in India; Liao's forces then fought in the counteroffensive in northern Burma, destroying more than ten thousand Japanese troops, including the elite 18th Division. In 1944 the New 22nd Division was expanded into the New 6th Army, with Liao promoted to army commander — one of the Nationalists' 'Five Elite Armies,' equipped and trained by the United States.

Encirclement and Capture

In September 1947, Liao was promoted to lieutenant general and commander of the Ninth Army Group. During the Liaoshen Campaign in 1948 he concurrently commanded the Liaoxi (Western Liaoning) Army Group, leading roughly 100,000 troops from six corps, including the New 6th and New 1st Armies, in a relief force — the Westward Advance Corps — dispatched toward besieged Jinzhou. After Jinzhou fell on 15 October, he was ordered to turn back and retake the city; his force was intercepted and encircled by Lin Biao's troops near Heishan. Between 26 and 28 October, the Westward Advance Corps was destroyed and Liao Yaoxiang was captured — one of the highest-ranking Nationalist officers taken prisoner in the civil war.

Captivity and Later Life

Liao Yaoxiang was held as a prisoner of war and, on 25 December 1961, was released in the third group of Nationalist war criminals granted amnesty; he then spent about a year doing manual labour at the Red Star People's Commune on the outskirts of Beijing. In May 1963 he was appointed a research fellow of the CPPCC National Committee's Historical Data Research Committee, and later became a member of the 4th CPPCC National Committee. Early in the Cultural Revolution, on 2 December 1968, he suffered a fatal heart attack after being publicly humiliated by Red Guards at a struggle session, dying on the spot at the age of 62.