Liu Bocheng (1892-1986)

Liu Bocheng was a great warrior of the Chinese people; an excellent member of the CPC; one of the founders of the Chinese People's Liberation Army; great proletarian revolutionist, military strategist, Marxist military theorist and military educator. Liu Bocheng, originally named Liu Mingzhao, was born on December 4, 1892 in Kaixian, Sichuan (today Kaizhou District, Sichuan Province). He joined the army during the 1911 Revolution and joined the CPC in 1926. In August 1927, he took part in the first Nanchang Uprising as one of the major leaders of it and served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Frontline Committee of the CPC. Later, he went to the Soviet Union and successively studied at the Senior Infantry School and Frunze Military Academy of the USSR in Moscow. After returning to China in the summer of 1930, Liu Bocheng served as a member of the Revolutionary Military Commission in the Central Soviet Area as well as Military Secretary of the Yangtze River division of the CPC.

In December of the same year, he went to Shanghai to assist Zhou Enlai, who was the secretary of the Central Military Commission and led the daily work of the Central Military Commission. Between January 1931 and December 1934, he served as Chief of Staff of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission of the CPC. Since November 1931, Liu Bocheng served as a member of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese Soviet Republic. In January 1932, he came to the Central Revolutionary Base Area, was appointed as the president and political commissar of the Central Red Army Military Academy. By October he was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese Soviet Republic. In February 1934, he was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic at the Second National Soviet Congress. In the Fifth anti-encirclement campaign targeting the Central Revolutionary Base Area , when Liu Bocheng criticized the dogmatism of the military commander Li De (German communist Otto Braun from Comintern who fought in the leading ranks of Red Army) whose tactics had caused repeated defeats. Liu Bocheng was demoted to the Chief of Staff of the Fifth Field Army, due to “Left” leadership in the Party.

Liu Bocheng participated in the Long March. In December 1934, he was re-appointed to the Central Revolutionary Military Commission and served as the Chief of the Staff and commander of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. After the Zunyi Conference, he concurrently served as the commander of the Central Red Army’s Northward Advance Column. Since December 1936, he served as a member of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese Soviet Republic and also served as the vice president of the Red Army University. In February 1937, the West Route Army marched westward and requested support from the Central Committee of the CPC, the Central Military Commission ordered Liu Bocheng to lead the supportive Red Army forces under his chief command. During the Anti-Japanese War, he served as a member of the Central Military Commission of the CPC, the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, as a member of the Central Military Commission of the Frontline Committee of the CPC. General Front Committee attached to the Central Military Commission, member of the Taihang Sub-Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and the Vice-president of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.

In September 1943, he went to Yan’an to participate in the Yan’an Rectification Movement. During the War of Liberation (1946-1949), he served as a member of the Central Military Commission of the CPC, the chief commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, the chief commander of the Central Plains Field Army, the Chief Commander of the Second Field Army, member of the Standing Committee of the Central Plains Bureau of the CPC Central Committee,member of the Standing Committee of the East China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. In June 1947, he and Deng Xiaoping led the army in pressing onward to the Dabie Mountains area, raising the curtain on the PLA's nationwide strategic counter-offensive against KMT troops and he was among the members of the General Front Committee of the Huaihai and Crossing the Yangtze River Campaigns.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as a member of the Central People's Government Council of the PRC; member of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central People's Government; Chairman of the Military and Political Commission of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC; second secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, President and Political Commissar of the PLA's Military Academy; Vice-Chairman of the CPC Central Committee's Military Commission and of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Since 1954, he successively served as Vice-Chairman of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission; member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee; Director of the Military Training Department under the Central Military Commission of the CPC; Secretary of the Party Committee of the Military Training Department; President and Political Commissar of Higher Military Engineering Academy of the PLA; successively member, standing committee member and Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the CPC.

In September 1954, he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the First National People's Congress. In April 1959, January 1965, January 1975, and March 1978, he was successively elected as Vice-Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth National People's Congresses. In August 1980, Liu Bocheng resigned when he was theVice-Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People's Congress. He also served as the Vice-Chairman of the First, Second and Third National Defense Commission of the State. In September 1955, Liu Bocheng was awarded the rank of Marshal of the People's Republic of China, and was decorated with the First-Class Medal of August 1, First-Class Medal of Independence and Freedom, and the First-Class Medal of Liberation.

He died in Beijing on October 7, 1986.