Wei Lihuang () (16 February 1897 – 17 January 1960) was a Chinese general who served the
Nationalist government throughout the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
and
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
as one of China's most successful military commanders.
First joining the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
(KMT) during the early 1920s, Wei would rise to become general after the
Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...
, a two-year campaign to unify China. His later success under
Chiang Kai-shek during the Bandit (Communist) Suppression Campaigns from 1930 to 1934 would earn him the nickname "Hundred Victories Wei".
War with Japan
![Sun Liren n Wei Lih-huang](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Sun_Liren_n_Wei_Lih-huang.jpg)
A general during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
, Wei commanded the First War Area. With the entry of Great Britain and later the United States in the war against Japan, he was transferred to southern China as commander of the Nationalist Chinese XI Group Army. He later replaced General
Chen Cheng
Chen Cheng (; ; January 4, 1898 – March 5, 1965) was a Chinese political and military leader, and one of the main commanders of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.
After moving ...
as commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Forces, known as
Y Force
Y Force was the South East Asia Command designation given to Chinese National Revolutionary Army forces that re-entered Burma from Yunnan in 1944 as one of the Allies fighting in Burma Campaign of World War II. It consisted of 175,000 troops divid ...
. Y-Force consisted of over 100,000 Nationalist soldiers, and participated in major ground operations in support of American General
Joseph W. Stilwell
Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking o ...
's offensive in northern
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Wei was able to work effectively with American commanders.
![General Wei Lihuang on horseback](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/General_Wei_Lihuang_on_horseback.jpg)
Beginning his offensive into southern
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...
on 11 May 1944, Wei's troops captured
Tengchung on 15 September after two months of heavy fighting. Proceeding southward despite heavy resistance, his forces eventually linked up with Chinese divisions in
Wanting,
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
on January 27, 1945. The success of this offensive allowed the Allies to reopen the former
Burma Road
The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second Sino ...
supply network to China through Ledo, Burma, now named the
Ledo Road
The Ledo Road (from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming, Yunnan, China) was an overland connection between India and China, built during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver supplies to China and aid the war effort against Japan ...
. In concert with existing airlift operations over
The Hump
The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek an ...
, the Ledo Road enabled overland transport of military supplies from Assam to Nationalist bases in China.
Postwar career
![Chiang Kai Shek and Wei Lihuang](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Chiang_Kai_Shek_and_Wei_Lihuang.jpg)
Recalled to northern China to again replace General
Chen Cheng
Chen Cheng (; ; January 4, 1898 – March 5, 1965) was a Chinese political and military leader, and one of the main commanders of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.
After moving ...
following the war, Wei was placed in command of KMT forces in
northeast China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...
in October 1947. After being cut off from land communication with the KMT with the communist capture of
Chinchow (
Jinzhou
Jinzhou (, ), formerly Chinchow, is a coastal prefecture-level city in central-west Liaoning province, China. It is a geographically strategic city located in the Liaoxi Corridor, which connects most of the land transports between North Chin ...
锦州,
Liaoning), he was supposedly planning for an offensive to recapture the Nationalist provincial capital before he was ordered to withdraw by
Chiang Kai-shek. Shortly before the communist capture of
Mukden
Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the prov ...
(
Shenyang), Wei would return to southern
China following his replacement by his field commander
Du Yuming
Du Yuming (; 28 November 1904 – 7 May 1981), was a Kuomintang field commander. He was a graduate of the first class of Whampoa Academy, took part in Chiang's Northern Expedition, and was active in southern China and in the Burma theatre of the ...
in October 1948.
In spite of Wei's earlier success, his tenure in the northeast was remarkably unsuccessful. He defied orders for more than a year to withdraw, and lost 300,000 troops. Taylor (2009) writes that "Of those, 246,000 were captured, and many if not most were quickly incorporated into the
PLA
PLA may refer to:
Organizations Politics and military
* People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of China and of the ruling Chinese Communist Party
* People's Liberation Army (disambiguation)
** Irish National Liberation Army, formerly called ...
" (p. 389).
Chiang ordered Wei's house arrest. Wei made his way to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
in 1949, and moved to Beijing in 1955, where he would "participate in various organizations of the
People's Republic
People's republic is an official title, usually used by some currently or formerly communist or left-wing states. It is mainly associated with soviet republics, socialist states following people's democracy, sovereign states with a democratic- ...
" (Taylor, 2009, p. 389). He would live in the PRC until his death in 1960.
References
*Dupuy, Trevor N. ''
Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography
''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography'' () was written by Trevor N. Dupuy, Curt Johnson and David Bongard, and was issued in 1992 by HarperCollins Publishers. It contains more than three thousand short biographies of military figures fro ...
'', New York, 1992
* http://www.generals.dk/general/Qiu_Qing-quan/_/China.html
*Ministry of National Defense R.O.
US Naval War College
* Taylor, Jay. ''The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Struggle for Modern China'', New York, 2009
* http://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/bjorge_huai.pdf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wei, Lihuang
1897 births
1960 deaths
Chinese military personnel of World War II
National Revolutionary Army generals from Anhui
People's Republic of China politicians from Anhui
Politicians from Hefei
Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery