Cheng Zihua (; June 20, 1905 – March 30, 1991) was a

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

politician and military general.Cheng Zihua
Beijing Review He was born in

Yuncheng Yuncheng () is the southernmost prefecture-level city in Shanxi province, People's Republic of China. It borders Linfen and Jincheng municipalities to the north and east, and Henan (Luoyang and Jiyuan to the east, Sanmenxia to the south) and ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

Province. He was the 1st

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

Committee Secretary and governor of his home province. He was a delegate to the 3rd (1964-1975), 4th (1975-1978) and 5th (1978-1983)

National People's Congress The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the Sta ...

. Cheng was an important part of the Third Front campaign to develop basic and national defense industry in China's interior.

Career

Early career

At 21 years old in 1927, Cheng joined the Communist Party. He participated in

Jiangxi Soviet The Jiangxi Soviet, sometimes referred to as the Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet, was a soviet area that existed between 1931 and 1934, governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It was the largest component of the Chinese Soviet Republic and hom ...

, was part of the

Long March The Long March ( zh, s=长征, p=Chángzhēng, l=Long Expedition) was a military retreat by the Chinese Red Army and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from advancing Kuomintang forces during the Chinese Civil War, occurring between October 1934 and ...

, and fought against Japan during the Second-Sino Japanese War and against the Nationalists during the on-going

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

1949 and after

In 1949, Cheng became the Party Secretary of

. He later served as Minister of Commerce and Vice Director of the Planning Commission.

Third Front construction

Cheng strongly supported the Third Front campaign to develop basic industry and national defense industry in China's interior. Cheng wrote in his memoirs, "Preparing for war was absolutely necessary" because (1) the United States "had launched a war of aggression against Vietnam at our southern border" and (2) because of increasing Soviet hostility towards China, "the situation at our northern border was very tense.." In Cheng's ultimate evaluation, the Third Front was a major success because it had rectified "the almost total lack of industry in the interior" which had existed before 1949 and persisted into the 1960s. As part of his work on the Third Front, Cheng led an investigative team that conducted regional surveys to start preparations for the Chengdu-Kunming railroad and industrial complexes near

Panzhihua Panzhihua ( zh, c=攀枝花, p=Pānzhīhuā), formerly Dukou ( zh, labels=no, c=渡口), is a prefecture-level city located in the far south of Sichuan province, China, at the confluence of the Jinsha and Yalong Rivers. It has an administrative ...

Liupanshui Liupanshui ( zh, s=六盘水 , t=六盤水 , p=Liùpánshuǐ) is a city in western Guizhou province, People's Republic of China. The name Liupanshui combines the first character from the names of each of the city's three constituent counties: Liu ...

, and

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

. Cheng first visited Panzhihua in mid-1964 when only eight households lived there. In his memoirs, Cheng highlights Panzhihua's suitability for a strategic industrial rear because its "lofty mountains and steep hills" would make it difficult for enemy infantry to access or for enemy airplanes to bomb. Before beginning to conduct the surveys, Cheng led the team to study Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai's comments on the Third Front in order to emphasize the importance of the Third Front campaign; Cheng also led the team in discussion sessions focused on Mao's texts '' On Practice'', '' On Contradiction'', and '' Oppose Book Worship'' in a further effort to build ideological cohesion among the team.

References

1905 births 1991 deaths People's Republic of China politicians from Shanxi Chinese Communist Party politicians from Shanxi Governors of Shanxi Political office-holders in Shanxi Ministers of civil affairs of the People's Republic of China People's Liberation Army generals from Shanxi Politicians from Yuncheng Delegates to the 3rd National People's Congress Delegates to the 4th National People's Congress Delegates to the 5th National People's Congress Vice chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Alternates of the 7th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party {{China-politician-stub