Lin Piao

Lin Piao: see Lin Biao.

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Lin Biao

 or Lin Piao

(born Dec. 5, 1907, Huanggang, Hubei province, China—died Sept. 13, 1971?, Mongolia?) Chinese military leader and government official who played a prominent role in the Cultural Revolution. He joined the Socialist Youth League in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition in 1926. When Chiang turned on the communists in 1927, Lin fled to join Mao. During the Long March Lin became legendary for never losing a battle, and he prevailed against the Japanese in the 1930s and the Nationalists in the 1940s. In the early 1960s his reformation and indoctrination of the army in accordance with Mao's teachings became a model for the rest of society, and during the Cultural Revolution he was designated Mao's successor. Subsequent events are unclear, but in September 1971 the Chinese government reported that Lin died in a plane crash in Mongolia in an attempt to flee China; his death has remained a mystery.

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Lin Piao, Lin Biao

1908--71, Chinese Communist general and statesman. He became minister of defence (1959) and second in rank to Mao Tse-tung (1966). He fell from grace and is reported to have died in an air crash while attempting to flee to the Soviet Union

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Lin Piao 

Born in 1907 in the district of Huangkang, Hupeh Province; died 1971. Chinese military and political figure. Son of a bankrupt petty entrepreneur.

In 1925, Lin joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). From 1925 to 1926 he studied at the military school at Huang-p’u. He was a participant in the Nanch’ang Rebellion of 1927. As one of the prominent commanders of the Red Army of China, he commanded the 1st Army Group of the First Front in the Northwestern Campaign of 1934–36. In 1936 he was appointed chief of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political Academy in the city of Yenan. From 1937 to 1945 he commanded a division of the Eighth Army led by the CCP. From 1945 to 1948 he commanded the Northeastern Army, and from 1948 to 1950 he was commander of the Fourth Field Army of the National Liberation Army of China. Between 1949 and 1954 he was a member of the Central People’s Governing Council and vice-chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Military Council of the People’s Republic of China. In 1954, Lin was appointed deputy premier of the State Council and vice-chairman of the State Committee of Defense of the People’s Republic of China. Between 1955 and 1965 he held the title of marshal of the People’s Republic of China. (In 1965 military titles were abolished in the People’s Republic of China.)

In 1955 he was elected to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CCP, and in 1958 he became one of the vice-chairman of the Central Committee and a member of the Permanent Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CCP. In 1959 he was appointed minister of defense of the People’s Republic of China. In 1966 he became the sole vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the CCP. The charter of the CCP adopted at the Ninth Congress of the CCP in 1969 officially called Lin the “close comrade-in-arms and successor” of Mao Tse-tung. At the first plenum of the Central Committee of the CCP after the Ninth Congress, he was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CCP, a member of the Permanent Committee of the Politburo, and vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the CCP. Lin died in 1971, at the time of a new outbreak of struggle for power within the Chinese leadership. The Tenth Congress of the CCP (1973) declared him a political adversary of Mao and accused him of having made an attempt upon Mao’s life. [14–1417–2; updated]