Yao Tongbin (; September 3, 1922 – June 8, 1968) was a Chinese scientist and one of China's foremost missile engineers. He was beaten to death during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

in 1968. In 1999, he was posthumously awarded the

Two Bombs, One Satellite Two Bombs, One Satellite () was an early nuclear and space project of the People's Republic of China. ''Two Bombs'' refers to the atomic bomb (and later the hydrogen bomb) and the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while ''One Satellite' ...

Meritorious Award, and officially recognized as a "martyr" within China.

Early life and education

Yao was born in

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

, Jiangsu Province. He graduated from the department of metallurgy of National Tangshan Engineering College, now Southwest Jiaotong University in July 1945, and obtained a doctorate of foundry engineering from

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

in UK in 1951. In June 1953, Yao earned a Diploma in Metallurgy from the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. At the invitation of Eugen Piwowarsky from the RWTH Aachen University, he moved to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in early 1954 and worked at Aachen as a research assistant at what was then the Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy.

Career

After his return from Germany in 1957, Yao worked in China first as a research associate at the 5th Research Institute of the Chinese Ministry of Defense, later as Director of the Research Institute for Material and Process Technology. After returning to China in September 1957, Yao served in the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of National Defense, headed by

Qian Xuesen Qian Xuesen, or Hsue-Shen Tsien (; 11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009), was a Chinese mathematician, cyberneticist, aerospace engineer, and physicist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineer ...

. He helped found the Institute of Materials and Technology (later affiliated to the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building and became the director.

Murder

After the eruption of the

, the young engineer Ye Zhengguang overthrew the Seventh Ministry leadership and removed Minister Wang Bingzhang and Vice Minister

. Within the Seventh Ministry, two mass factions, labeled as "915" and "916" respectively, appeared in September 1966. Whereas Faction 915 comprised mainly administrative office staff members and blue collar workers, Faction 916 primarily consisted of scientists, engineers, and technicians. The differences in opinion between the two factions soon escalated into warfare, spreading from the Third Academy to the First Academy and then throughout the entire Seventh Ministry. On June 8, 1968, Yao Tongbin was beaten to death at his own home by members of Faction 915.

Legacy

After this loss of one of China's foremost missile engineers,

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Ma ...

ordered for key technical experts. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, the two perpetrators were sentenced in 1979 to 15 years and 12 years in prison for the murder of Yao. Because of his significant contribution to China's astronautical materials and technology, Yao was posthumously awarded the

Meritorious Award in 1999 by Chinese government, over three decades after his murder.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yao, Tongbin 1922 births 1968 deaths Deaths by beating Scientists from Wuxi People persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution Shanghai Jiao Tong University alumni Alumni of the University of Birmingham Chinese aerospace engineers