Yang Shangkun, former Chinese president died of illness at 01:17 (Beijing time) on September 14 in Beijing at age of 92, according to an official obituary released that afternoon.
The obituary was released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Central Military Commission.
The obituary called Yang "a great proletarian revolutionary, a statesman, a military strategist, a staunch Marxist, an outstanding leader of the Party, the state and the people's army."
The life of Yang Shangkun "was glorious and militant" and he made "historic and indelible contributions to the Chinese people's cause of liberation and the cause of socialist revolution and construction," it said.
Yang threw himself into the revolutionary struggle against imperialism and feudalism since his youth. He joined the Communist Party of China in early 1926 as a member of the Chinese Communist Youth League. Since then, he began to devoted himself to the glorious cause of communism. In November 1926, he went to study at the Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow.
After returning to China in early 1931, he successively served as head of the Propaganda Department of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and head of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, and was one of the leaders of the workers' movement and the movement against Japanese aggression and for national salvation.
He arrived in the central revolutionary base area in early 1933, where he served as a director of propaganda of the Central Bureau of the Central Soviet Area and vice-president of the Marx Communist University.
In June of the same year, he was appointed director of the Political Department of the First Front Army of Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, fighting on the battlefront.
In January 1934, he became the political commissar of the Third Army Corps of the Red Army. In the same month, he was elected alternate member of the CPC Central Committee at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
After that, together with the then commander Peng Dehuai of the Third Army Corps, he commanded the army and won many battles during the fifth anti-encirclement campaign in the central Soviet area.
In October 1934, Yang and Peng led the Third Army Group beginning the Long March. He attended the enlarged meeting of the CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau held in Zunyi, Guizhou Province in January 1935. At the meeting, he supported the correct views of Mao Zedong and criticized Bo Gu and Li De for their serious errors in military commanding.
During the Long March, he and Peng Dehuai led the Third Army Group fighting courageously and won a series of extremely fierce battles, including the fights for Loushanguan and Zunyi City, and the battles near the Chishui River and Wujiang River, that were crucial to the fate of the revolutionary cause.
In August 1935, Yang served as deputy director of the General Political Department of the Red Army. He followed Mao Zedong closely and waged a firm struggle against the splittist Zhang Guotao. After reaching northern Shaanxi, he headed the political department of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission and the field army, fighting at the frontline of the Anti-Japanese War.
In August, 1937, Yang served as deputy secretary of the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and then became secretary of the bureau in November. He actively launched the Party, Army and political power building work in the North China Anti-Japanese Aggression Base, and boosted the upsurge of the mass movement against Japanese aggression in North China.
Yang returned to Yan'an at the beginning of 1941 and worked at a department of the CPC Central Committee. He took part in the Rectification Movement during that period. In April, 1945, Yang attended the Seventh CPC National Congress.
After the War Against Japanese Aggression ended in 1945, he worked as the secretary general of the CPC Central Military Commission and deputy head of the Central Foreign Affairs Group, and then director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.
In April, 1947, he took the office of the deputy secretary of the Rear Committee of the CPC Central Committee and made overall arrangement of the work of rear areas of the CPC Central Committee, together with Ye Jianying, secretary of the Rear Committee.
In April, 1948, he once again took the office of the deputy secretary of the CPC Central Committee and assisted Zhou Enlai in handling daily affairs of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Yang continued to serve as deputy secretary general of the CPC Central Committee, director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, secretary general of the Central Military Commission, and secretary of the Party Committee of the Departments Under the CPC Central Committee.
He organized the readjustment and improvement of the work institutions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and established an effective work mechanism in serving the Party Central Committee.
In September 1956, Yang was elected member of the CPC Central Committee at the 8th CPC National Congress, and elected alternate member of the Secretariat of the 8th CPC Central Committee at its first plenary session.
During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Yang suffered from long prosecution by the two counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing and he was imprisoned for 12 years.
However, he kept studying Maxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought during the hard times, and all along showed concern about the fate and future of the Party and socialist construction.
After the 3rd plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the Party Central Committee announced Yang's rehabilitation and abolished all charges against him.
From December 1978 to the end of 1980, Yang successively served as second secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, vice-governor of Guangdong Province, first secretary of the CPC Guangzhou City Committee, and chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Guangzhou. In the meantime, he served as first Political Commissar of the Guangdong Provincial Military Area Command, and first secretary of the Command's CPC Committee.
With sharp vision and daring to try out new things, Yang firmly carried out the reform and open policy as well as the historic decision of shifting the work focus onto the for the modernization drive and a series of policies that were drawn up by the CPC Central Committee with Deng Xiaoping at the core.
In order to make Guangdong a pilot and model of China's reform and opening drive, he actively participated in implementing special policies in Guangdong Province and trying out special economic zones, and gained precious experience in implementing the reform and opening policy nationwide.
In September 1979, Yang was by-elected a member of the CPC Central Committee. In September 1980, he was by-elected a vice-chairman and concurrently secretary-general, of the NPC Standing Committee.
In July 1981, he was appointed a member of the Standing Committee and concurrently secretary-general, of the Central Military Commission (CMC). In September 1982, he was appointed CMC executive vice-chairman and concurrently secretary-general.
Yang helped CMC Chairman Deng Xiaoping with the CMC day-to-day affairs and together with other members of the CMC Standing Committee, Yang resolutely carried out the ideology and military strategy of the CPC Central Committee and Deng Xiaoping on the army building in the new era.
He strictly implemented the policy-decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC to set to rights the serious damages done to the army as a result of the interference by Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" during the period of the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976), and made an in-depth probing and study of a series of major issues concerning the modernization of the army under the new historical conditions.
Yang Shangkun stressed the importance of building a streamlined PLA with Chinese characteristics.
He took charge of the implementation of a series of major measures, including the strategic transfer of the guidelines for army building, restructuring of the army, army streamlining and reorganization, adjustment of national defense industrial system and speeding up the modernization of weaponry and equipment. He made remarkable achievements.
During the mid-1980s, Yang actively implemented the major decision initiated by Deng Xiaoping of reducing the size of the army by one million and successfully fulfilled the glorious and arduous task.
During the 12th and 13th CPC National Congress held in 1982 and 1987 respectively, Yang was elected member of the CPC Central Committee, and became member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the first plenary session of the 12th CPC Central Committee. He also continued to serve as vice-chairman and concurrently secretary-general of the Central Military Commission.
Yang Shangkun actively took part in the making major policies of the party and the government. He had been making great contributions for the socialist modernization drive in the new era and the reform and open-up drive.
After serving as first vice-chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission in November, 1981, he assisted Jiang Zemin, chairman of the Central Military Commission, in taking charge of the daily work of the Central Military Commission.
In April 1988, Yang Shangkun was elected president of the People's Republic of China at the first session of the 7th National People's Congress.
He made fact-finding tours to various parts of China to get first-hand information of the country's economic growth process, guided the work and solved problems for reform and open-up drive.
Together with other leaders of the party and government, he dealt with the political turmoil in 1989 and helped maintain the independence, dignity, security and stability for the country.
He paid a close attention to the development and changes of the international situation and participated in the making and adjustment of China's foreign policy.
He also took part in busy diplomatic activities and won respect and trust of the international community.
He retired from his posts of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Central Military Commission and of president of the state between October 1992 and March 1993. However, he still closely followed the great cause of building socialism and reunification of the motherland.
The passing away of Yang Shangkun is a great loss to the Party, the state and the people's army.
We should transform grief into strength and learn from his noble revolutionary spirit, ideology and morality, rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core, hold high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and strive to build our country into a modernized powerful socialist country.
Eternal glory to Comrade Yang Shangkun!