Pride of the Servicewomen: Women Generals

In 1995 the Chinese armed forces instituted the system of military ranks.

At the rank-conferring ceremony in Huairen Hall of Zhongnanhai, Beijing, Red Armywoman Li Zhen, Previously a child bride, was promoted because of her illustrious military exploits to the rank of general, the first woman general in China.

In 1998 the Chinese armed forces reinstituted the system of military ranks.

Five women officers, including Nie Li, constituted the first group

of women generals promoted after the reinstitution. In 1993, Nie Li was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and became the first woman lieutenant general in the world. By now, there are already 13 women generals in the Chinese armed forces. This is a line-up that has attracted worldwide attention and has become the pride of Chinese servicewomen.

Li Zhen was born in the village of Xiaobanqiao of Hunan Province in Feb. 1908; joined the revolutionary ranks in the spring of 1926 and became a member of the CPC in March 1927; in Sept. of the same year participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising; soon afterwards, assumed the post of chairwoman of the Soldiers' Committee of Liudong Guerrilla Forces and chairwoman of the Presidium of the Soviet Executive Committee of Liuyang County; in the winter of 1930 became director of the Military Affairs Department and concurrently secretary of the Women's Committee of Pingjiang County; in the winter of 1931 became secretary of the Women's Committee of Xiang-Gan Provinces; in the winter of 1932 became political commissar of the Women's Group of the Xiang-gan Military Command and dean of the Political Department of the Red Army School of the Xiang-Gan Military Command; in Nov. 1934 became director of the Organization Department of the 6th Army Group under the Red Army; in Nov. 1935 took part in the Long March and became deputy director and acting director of the Organization Department of the 2nd Front Red Army ; during the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation served successively as principal of Women's School of the Eighth Route Army, director of the Political Section directly under the 120th Division, chief of the Organization Section of the Organization Department of the Shan-Gan-Ning-Jin-Sui Joint Forces, secretary-general of the Political Department of the Jin-Sui Military Command, and secretary-general of the Political Department of the Northwestern Field Army; during the War to Resist U. S. Aggression and Aid Korea served as secretary-general of the Political Department of the Chinese People's Volunteers; after returning home in 1953, served successively as director of the Department of Cadres under the Political Department of the Air Defense Forces of the Military Commission, deputy public procurator-general of the Military Procuratorate of the PLA, and advisor to the Organization Department under the General Political Department, etc.

Almost all of the 13 women generals promoted after 1988 have a high educational background. Moreover, the majority of them are generals promoted to cadres in charge from scientists or officers of professional techniques.

Lieutenant general Nie Li, formerly deputy director of and now advisor to the Science and Technology Committee under the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, was born in

Sept. 1930 in Sichuan, joined the CPC in March 1950 and in 1960 graduated from the Leningrad Precision Machinery and Optical Instrument College in the former Soviet Union. Since returning home, Nie has worked in the national defense scientific research department. Numerous brilliant scientific research achievements are closely associated with her name, including the oceangoing telemetering ship, the Yuanwang, which carried out the survey of synchronous communications satellite tracking parameters in the South Pacific; the research and development of our country's general-purpose super computer the Galaxy; and numerous military-related electronic technology projects. Beginning from the second half of the 80's, she has also served as vice chairwoman of the National Women's Federation, a member of the Standing Committee of the Fourth Scientific and Technological Association in China, a senior member of the Electronics Institute, and deputy director of the Chinese Women Scientific and Technological Workers' Federation. She is also a member of the Standing Committee, a member of the Internal Affairs and Judicial Commission, and head of the Special Group on Women and Children of the 8th National People's Congress. She was promoted to the rank of major general in 1988 and to lieutenant general in 1993.

Major general Liao Wenhai, president of the General Hospital of the PLA, was born in May 1934 in Shanghai, joined the army from Chengdu in Dec. 1950 and graduated from Shenyang Medical College in 1956. At the age of 28 she was appointed as the head physician, and became deputy director of the department wherein she worked at the age of 36. She assumed the office of vice-president of the hospital in 1983 and president in 1988. The hospital under her management is the largest one in the whole army. It has 1.500 beds and over 4,000 staff members. The Military Postgraduate Medical College is attached to it. The hospital's daily volume of outpatients amounts to over 3,000 people. She is a deputy to the 13th and 14th National Congress of the CPC and an alternate member of the 13th and 14th Central Committee of the CPC. In 1988 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Hu Feipei, the former vice-president of the Foreign Languages Institute of the PLA, was born in 1930 in Shanghai, joined the army in 1949, and graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1949. After that she became an English teacher and taught in many different places. In 1983 she assumed the office of deputy director of the college training department and vice-president of the college in 1987. In 1993 she was granted a first-class army-level award for excellent teaching achievements in army colleges and schools because of her accomplishment of the "Monumental Breakthroughs in Basic English Training. " In 1988 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Wu Xiaoheng, the former vice-president of the First Military Medical university, was born in 1932 in Hubei, joined the army in 1950 and graduated from Harbin Medical university. In the early 80's, when she served as director of the Internal Medicine Department of the Southern Hospital attached to the University, she assisted the president in supervising a comprehensive reform in the medical and logistical work of the first overseas Chinese-oriented hospital Huiqiaolou. In 1983 she was appointed to the post as vice-president of the First Military Medical University and assumed responsibility for scientific research work. Correct Use of the Theory of Science and Technology Constituting she First Productive Force to Promote the Development of Colleges and Universities and a dozen other important articles written by her, articles exploring and reflecting the subject of vitalizing colleges through science and technology have been published successively in magazines like China's Higher Education. In 1990 he medical university won 2 first-class awards for achievements in science and technology at the army level and the number of second-class awards won that year tripled that when she just assumed office. In 1988 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Li Xikai, the former vice-president of the Third Military Medical University, was born in April 1932 in Beijing, joined the army in Sept. 1950, and graduated from the Mid-China Medical College in 1956. After working for 5 years she was appointed as the head Physician. More than 30 research papers and the scientific monograph Advances in Studies of Heart Failure she has written marks her status in the field of cardiology. In 1983 she was promoted to the position as president of the No. 2 Hospital attached to the Third Military Medical University and to Vice-president of the university in 1986. The laboratory of quality control of hospital infection established under her supervision, junior medical workers' continuous medical education after graduation, and quality control of clinical postgraduate students were all innovatory and creative attainments she made after assuming the leadership post. She is also included in 500 Outstanding Chinese Women. In 1988 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Qiao Peijuan, the former political commissar of the PLA Art Institute, was born in 1932, joined the army in 1947, and graduated first from the Department of opera of the Central Theatrical Institute in 1953 and then in 1963 from the Shanghai Vocal Music Research Institute, Where she majored in vocal music. She has played in succession the leading characters in more than 20 operas such as The Marriage of Xiao Er Hei and The White-Haired Girl. In 1979 she was promoted to the position as associate political commissar and then political commissar of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the PLA General

Political Department. She took up the post of vice-president in 1988 and of political commissar in 1992 of the PLA Art Institute, being chiefly responsible for artistic creation, academic research and ideological work. She is a member of the Chinese Musicians' Association, a member of the Chinese Dramatists' Association and an executive director of the Chinese Pharyngeal Institute. In 1990 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Zhao Zhiwen, the former vice-president of the Institute of International Relations of the PLA, was born in 1935 in Zhejiang, joined the army in 1951, and graduated from the Foreign Languages Institute of the PLA in 1956. In 1981 she got a master's degree from San Francisco University of America. She has taught respectively in the Foreign Languages Institute of the PLA, the East China Normal University in Shanghai, the Institute of International Relations of the PLA and some other places. Demand for the textbook Practical English Communications Grammar compiled by her as a result of her 30-year rich experience in teaching and research far exceeds supply even tough the book has been released in the sixth edition. A one million-character book The Modern English Communications Guidebook will soon come out. In 1990 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Peng Gang, director of the Discipline Inspection Department under the General Political Department, was born in Nov. 1938 in Hunan, joined the army in Aug. 1959, and graduated from the Northwest Military Telecommunications Engineering College in Aug. 1965. She became an engineer of a research institute of the Meteorological Bureau under the Headquarters of the General Staff in 1979 and in 1980 became an engineer and then director of the Automation Research Section of Command and Management under the Headquarters of the General Logistics Department. In 1985 she was appointed associate director and then director of the cadre department under the General Political Department of the General Logistics Department. In 1988 she was appointed Vice-secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission under the General Logistics Department. From July 1990 she began to serve as associate director and then director of the Discipline Inspection Department under the General Political Department. She is a member of the 13th Central Discipline Inspection Commission, a member of the Standing Committee of the 14th Central Discipline Inspection Commission, deputy secretary of the Discipline Inspection Committee of the Central Military Commission and a member of the Party committee of the General Political Department. In 1991 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Deng Xianqun, director of the Mass Work Department under the General Political Department of the PLA, was born in Dec.

1935 in Sichuan and joined the CPC in 1961. She has a college education background. From Oct. 1957 to 1959 she worked in the Education Bureau of the Xicheng District in Beijing; and from Aug. 1959 to 1962 she studied in the Harbin Military Engineering College. After graduation she worked in succession in different institutes and departments of the National Defense Ministry, the Navy and the Second Artillery Troops, etc. From Feb. 1991 she began to work Department under the General Political department. In 1992 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general He Jiesheng , director of the Research Department of the Military Encyclopedia of the Academy of Military Science, was born in Nov. 1935 in Hunan, joined the army in 1950 and has worked in succession as assistant teacher, editor, journalist, and director of the Compilation and Research Section of the General Political Department. The reading and editing of China's Military Encyclopedia led by he Jiesheng was an important task assigned by the Central Military Commission in 1984. The effort involved the compilation of over 11,000 entries covering 58 subjects in seven categories, including 8,000 diagrams, and totaling more than 16 million characters. Well over 5,000 experts and scholars, both inside and outside the army, participated in the compilation effort. When completed, the work became the first exemplary encyclopedia representing the level of military science in China. He Jiesheng is the under secretary-general of the Military Science Institute and has been enrolled as a member of the Chinese Writers' Association and the Chinese Film Artists' Association. In 1992 she was promoted to the rank of major general. Major general Wang Xiaotang, director of the August First Film Studio, was born in Jan. 1934 in Jiangsu, joined the army in 1952 and is a first-class film actress of the country. In 1958 she won a young actors' award at the Eleventh Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for her playing the female protagonist in Beacon-fire in a Stockaded Border Village. Her excellent performance in many films resulted in her becoming one of the 22 film stars authorized by the Cultural Ministry of the People's Republic of China in the early 60's. She has some very original views of art and phonetics. Her monograph on phonetics was serialized in Hongkong's Dagongbao and her monograph on art was serialized in Film Art. From 1988 she began to serve as deputy

director and then director of the August First Film Studio. She is a member Of the National Art Association, a director of the Chinese Film Artists' Association, a director of China's International Cultural Exchanges Center, a deputy to the 14th National Congress of the CPC and a committee member of the 8th National Committee of the C.P.P.C.C. In 1993 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Zhong Yuzheng, an analytical chemistry professor at

the Basic Courses Department of the PLA Antichemical Warfare Command Engineering Institute under the Headquarters of the General Staff, was born in 1930 in Guangdong and joined the army in 1950. She studied in succession in the Medical Department of the National Central University in Nanjing, the Chemical Department of the Jingling Women's Liberal Arts and Science College in Nanjing, the Chemical Servicemen's School of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and the Chemical Department Of Beijing University. She has also taught in succession in the Chemical Department of Beijing University, the Chemical Servicemen's School, the 6th Department of the Harbin military Engineering College and the Antichemical Warfare Command Engineering Institute. She is the only woman general working in the special technology sector of the PLA. From 1991 on, Zhong has three times led a delegation of China's Chemical experts to the second, third and fourth rounds of verification and comparison experiments organized by the Special Committee for Chemical Weapons under the United Nations Disarmament Commission. In 1993 she was promoted to the rank of major general.

Major general Zhao Fuhuan, vice-president of the Academy of Military Medical Science, was born in Nov. 1942 in Tianjin and graduated from Tianjin Medical College in 1965. In the 70's she started fairly early domestic studies of viruses in water, was in charge of and completed studies of microorganisms in water, such as the effect evaluation index of sterilizing viruses in water with F2 bacteriophage and its concentration check method. In the 80s, during her tenure of office of director of the Environmental Medicine Research Institute of Hygienics of the Academy, Chao Fuhuan was in charge of and completed studies on bacteria monitor cabinets of the armed forces' water quality, measures of applied techniques for improvement of the armed forces' drinking water, and microorganism monitor cabinets of the armed forces' food. She was awarded for four times respectively prizes for progress in science and technology at the army and national levels. Altogether she has written 32 theses and one monograph Armed Forces Water-Supply Hygienics. She is a director of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association and a director of the Chinese Microorganism Association. In 1994 she was promoted to the rank of major general.