Ye Jianying (or Yeh Chien-ying) (1898–1986)

Chinese communist politician, head of state 1978–83. Ye entered the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policy-making Secretariat in 1966 and replaced Lin Biao as defence minister in 1971. He played a key role in organizing the September–October 1976 Hua Guofeng coup against the ultra-leftist ‘Gang of Four’, led by Jiang Qing, and in facilitating the rehabilitation of the reformist Deng Xiaoping. Ye served as chair of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee during 1978–83 and was thus de facto head of state.

He was a member of the CCP Politburo's Standing Committee between 1977–85, advocating rapprochement with the USA, and military and economic modernization.

The son of a prosperous Guangzhou (Canton) trader, Ye graduated from the Yunnan Military Academy in 1919 and worked alongside Zhou Enlai as an instructor at the Whampoa Military Academy from 1924 to 1926. He joined the CCP and, in 1927 fled to the Soviet Union to escape the nationalist Kuomintang's (Guomindang's) anti-communist purge. He returned in 1931 and, after taking part in the ‘Long March’ of 1934–35, served as chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army during the Liberation War of 1937–49. Ye was appointed commander of the Guangdong region, after the People's Republic was established in 1949, and honoured with the rank of marshal in 1955.

His son, Ye Xuanping became governor of Guangdong province and successfully introduced market-centred economic reforms from the 1980s.