Ba Zhongtan (; January 1930 – 15 November 2018) was a lieutenant general of the Chinese

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

(PLA) and the

People's Armed Police ) , abbreviation = PAP ("People's Armed Police") CAPF ("Chinese Armed Police Force"), formerly abbreviated''Wujing'' ( zh , s = 武警 , p = Wǔjǐng , l = Armed Police , labels = no ), or WJ as on vehicle license plates , patch ...

(PAP). He served as commander of the Shanghai Garrison from 1985 to 1992 and of the PAP from December 1992 to February 1996.

Career

Ba was born in

Yantai Yantai, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

, China in January 1930. He enlisted in the

in 1949 and joined the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

in 1950. Ba worked in

East China East China () is a geographical and a loosely defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China. A concept abolished in 1978, for economical purposes the region was defined from 1949 to 1961 by the Chinese Central Governme ...

and the

Nanjing Military Region The Nanjing Military Region () was one of the former seven military command regions for the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Its jurisdiction covers all military and armed police located in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Shanghai ...

as a staff officer. He was later promoted to the deputy chief of staff of the Nanjing Military Region. In August 1985 he became commander of the Shanghai Garrison. In September 1988 he was promoted to the rank of major general. On 28 February 1992 his rank was changed from major general of the People's Liberation Army into the rank of major-general of the

(PAP). In 1993 he was promoted to lieutenant general in the PAP. He was considered a protege of Communist Party general secretary

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...

, who was Shanghai's mayor when Ba served as commander of the Shanghai Garrison.

Dismissal

On 2 February 1996, Li Peiyao, one of the 19 vice chairmen of the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2, ...

, was murdered at his home in a bungled burglary by Zhang Jinlong (), a member of the Beijing PAP. As a result, Ba was retired and replaced by Lt. Gen. Yang Guoping. After retiring from military service, Ba later served as chairman of the Council for National Security Policy Studies and chairman of the Shanghai Water Resource Protection Foundation.

Death

Ba died on 15 November 2018 in Beijing, aged 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ba, Zhongtan 1930 births 2018 deaths People's Liberation Army generals from Shandong People from Yantai Commanders of the People's Armed Police