Cheng Zihua

In this Chinese name, the family name is Chen.

Cheng Zihua (Chinese: 程子华; June 20, 1905 – March 30, 1991) was a People's Republic of China politician and military general. He was born in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. He was the 1st Chinese Communist Party 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. Cheng was an important part of the Third Front campaign to develop basic and national defense industry in China's interior.

Cheng Zihua
程子华
Cheng Zihua
Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office 12 September 1980 – 10 April 1988
Chairman	Deng Xiaoping Deng Yingchao
Minister of Civil Affairs
In office 5 March 1978 – 4 May 1982
Premier	Hua Guofeng Zhao Ziyang
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Cui Naifu
Minister of Commerce
In office 11 September 1958 – 18 February 1960
Premier	Zhou Enlai
Preceded by	Chen Yun
Succeeded by	Yao Yilin
Communist Party Secretary of Shanxi
In office August 1949 – February 1951
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Lai Ruoyu
Governor of Shanxi
In office August 1949 – February 1951
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Pei Lisheng
Personal details
Born	(1905-06-20)20 June 1905 Xiezhou, Shanxi, Qing Empire
Died	30 March 1991(1991-03-30) (aged 85) Beijing, People's Republic of China
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Spouse	Zhang Hui
Children	2
Alma mater	Republic of China Military Academy
Military service
Allegiance	People's Republic of China
Branch/service	People's Liberation Army Ground Force
Years of service	1926–1950
Rank	Army group commander (Equivalent to Senior general)
Battles/wars	Second Sino-Japanese War Chinese Civil War
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	程子华
Traditional Chinese	程子華
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chéng Zǐhuá

Career

Early career

At 21 years old in 1927, Cheng joined the Communist Party. He participated in Jiangxi Soviet, was part of the Long March, and fought against Japan during the Second-Sino Japanese War and against the Nationalists during the on-going Chinese Civil War.

1949 and after

In 1949, Cheng became the Party Secretary of Shanxi. 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, Liupanshui, and Chongqing. 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.