Li Mi (Republic of China general)
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Li Mi (; 4 November 1902 – 10 March 1973) was a high-ranking Nationalist general who participated in the anti-Communist
Encirclement Campaigns Encirclement campaigns (), officially called in Chinese Communist historiography as the Agrarian Revolutionary War were the campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Chinese Communist Party during the ...
, Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. He was one of the few Kuomintang commanders to achieve notable victories against both Chinese Communist forces and the Imperial Japanese Army. Following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he withdrew his forces to Burma and Thailand, where he continued to carry out guerrilla raids into Communist-held territory.


Early life and career

Li Mi was born in
Tengchong County Tengchong () is a county-level city of Baoshan City, western Yunnan province, People's Republic of China. It is well known for its volcanic activity. The city is named after the town of Tengchong which serves as its political center, previously kn ...
, Yunnan Province. He had a difficult childhood but his family managed to give him a modern education. In 1924, he went to Guangdong Province and entered the fourth class of the
Whampoa Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy () is the service academy for the army of the Republic of China, located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung. Previously known as the the military academy produced commanders who fought in many of China's ...
. He participated in the Northern Expedition with his classmates Hu Lien,
Zhang Lingfu Zhang may refer to: Chinese culture, etc. * Zhang (surname) (張/张), common Chinese surname ** Zhang (surname 章), a rarer Chinese surname * Zhang County (漳县), of Dingxi, Gansu * Zhang River (漳河), a river flowing mainly in Henan * ''Zha ...
,
Liu Yuzhang Liu Yuzhang (; 11 November 1903 – 11 April 1981), nicknamed the "Bald General", was a prominent Chinese (Kuomintang) general. He was one of the very few KMT commanders who could defeat both the Imperial Japanese Army and Communist PLA in the Se ...
and Lin Biao. During the anti-Communist
Encirclement Campaigns Encirclement campaigns (), officially called in Chinese Communist historiography as the Agrarian Revolutionary War were the campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Chinese Communist Party during the ...
his superior commander, General Chen Cheng, accused him of harboring Communist sympathies and tried to take over his unit. Li Mi was able to prove his loyalty to Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
and was named a county magistrate of one of the "red territories" the Kuomintang Nationalists had just taken over. In the early 1930s Li joined General Xue Yue's staff, leading a crack Nationalist unit to drive the Communist forces out of the Jiangxi Soviet. Li then pursued the retreating Communist forces, chasing them over 1,000 miles, on foot, over the Long March. After the Communists had based themselves in northern China, Li devised battle plans which helped to defeat the famous Red Army commanders like He Long and Ye Ting, occupying of the territories the communists had previous controlled. By the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Li had been promoted to colonel.


Second Sino-Japanese War

When the war between
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
broke out, Chiang Kai-shek had Li Mi transferred to the regular army after rumors surfaced about his loyalty towards the KMT government. His corps commander saved him from certain arrest and execution by vouching for Li's loyalty. In 1940, Li Mi was promoted to command of the First Honor Division and fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in Central China, managing to destroy a Japanese airfield. In 1940 he participated the
Battle of Kunlun Pass The Battle of Kunlun Pass () was a series of conflicts between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Chinese forces surrounding Kunlun Pass, a key strategic position in Guangxi province. The Japanese forces planned to cut off Chinese supply lines l ...
with General
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 ...
and General
Qiu Qingquan Qiu Qingquan (; 27 January 1902 – 10 January 1949) was a ROC Army general who excelled himself in Northern Expedition, anti-communist Encirclement Campaigns, Second Sino-Japanese War, and Chinese Civil War. In the Huaihai Campaign, which wa ...
and wiped out a Japanese brigade. In 1944 he joined the "Y-Force", commanded by General Wei Lihuang, in the Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan, which destroyed the Japanese 55th and 56th divisions. By 1945, Li Mi was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and placed in command of the 8th Corps while retaining his command of the First Honor Division.


Chinese Civil War

Under President
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
's personal orders, Generals Li Mi,
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 ...
and
Qiu Qingquan Qiu Qingquan (; 27 January 1902 – 10 January 1949) was a ROC Army general who excelled himself in Northern Expedition, anti-communist Encirclement Campaigns, Second Sino-Japanese War, and Chinese Civil War. In the Huaihai Campaign, which wa ...
removed local warlord
Long Yun Long Yun (; 27 November 1884 – 27 June 1962) was governor and warlord of the Chinese province of Yunnan from 1927 to October 1945, when he was overthrown in a coup (known as "The Kunming Incident") by Du Yuming under the order of Chiang Kai- ...
of Yunnan Province from power in June 1945. American troops provided many supplies and provisions to Li's 8th corps, which proved invaluable in the coming struggle against Chinese Communist forces. Until the outbreak of the 1948–1949 Huaihai Campaign, he was able to score a number of important victories against the Communists in Eastern China. In November 1948, Li Mi and Qiu Qingquan were tasked to relieve General
Huang Baitao Huang Baitao (; 9 September 1900 – 22 November 1948), also known as Huang Botao (黄伯韬), was a Chinese Nationalist general active in the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War, for which he was twice awarded the Order of Blue Sky an ...
's 7th army, but they were blocked by a superior enemy force. While attempting to assault enemy positions in Henan, he,
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 ...
, and
Qiu Qingquan Qiu Qingquan (; 27 January 1902 – 10 January 1949) was a ROC Army general who excelled himself in Northern Expedition, anti-communist Encirclement Campaigns, Second Sino-Japanese War, and Chinese Civil War. In the Huaihai Campaign, which wa ...
became surrounded by
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 ...
forces. Following this encirclement, Du was captured, Qiu committed suicide, and only Li was able to escape back to Nanjing. President Chiang Kai-shek instructed him to rebuild his former 13th army and defend his home province, Yunnan, from Communist attacks. By the time that Communist forces had taken the mainland in 1949, Li had already withdrawn his armies south and west, into Thailand and the Shan states of Northern Burma. When Burma declared independence in 1948, Li established an independent Shan regime for his "Anti-Communist National Salvation Army". From these bases, Li's units continued to carry out guerrilla attacks against the Communist authorities in Yunnan. Spence, Jonathan D. '' The Search for Modern China'',
W.W. Norton and Company W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton Ant ...
. (1999) pp. 527–528. .
Nationalist forces from Yunnan also attempted to move into French Indo-China, but these troops were quickly disarmed and arrested by the French. The troops which moved into Burma initially settled around
Tachilek Tachileik (also spelt Tachilek; my, တာချီလိတ်, ; shn, တႃႈၶီႈလဵၵ်း, ; th, ท่าขี้เหล็ก, , ), is a border town in the Shan State of eastern Myanmar. It is the administrative seat of Ta ...
, in the state of Kengtung, near the Thai border. The troops who moved there under Li joined earlier Nationalist troops who had remained in the area after fighting the Japanese in World War II. Following Li's withdrawal to this region, Li reorganized all available Nationalist forces in the region, placing them under his command. Li's forces subsequently became known to foreign observers as the "93rd Division".Kaufman, Victor S. "Trouble in the Golden Triangle: The United States, Taiwan and the 93rd Nationalist Division". ''The China Quarterly''. No. 166, Jun. 2001. p.440. retrieved at https://www.jstor.org/stable/3451165 on 6 March 2011.


Post-Civil War

Li's Kuomintang militants in Burma were partially supported secretly by weapons and other supplies and by CIA military advisors provided by the United States, but mostly supported itself through
opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
cultivation and distribution. At first, American strategists considered Li's "irregulars" useful to their regional efforts to contain communism; but, within a few years, Washington began to think of them as a threat to that same objective, and put serious pressure on
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
to remove them. In 1953, 7,000 troops, including Li Mi, were airlifted to Taiwan, but many more troops decided to remain behind. 7,000 troops remained entrenched around the Burma-Laos border, while several thousand more remained in Thailand. By the time that a second withdrawal was announced, in 1961, American credibility, US-Burmese relations, and the effort to contain communism in the region were in serious disarray. After achieving independence, the prime minister of Burma, U Nu, attempted to suppress Li's activities and ordered his forces to surrender, but Li refused. After the Burmese army attacked Li, he moved his troops to Mong Hsat. At the time, Burma was fighting four other insurgencies, including two communist guerrilla movements, and was not strong enough to seriously pursue Li's irregulars. The CIA programme to aid Li's troops in Burma was called "Operation Paper". Operation Paper involved the use of Thailand as a transit route, transporting weapons and supplies between Taiwan and Burma. Once arriving in Thailand, these supplies would then be transported via air by CAT ( Civilian Air Transport), a CIA proprietary airline, under the command of General Chennault, working through two dummy corporations as diplomatic cover. The Thai prime minister at the time,
Plaek Phibunsongkhram Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram ( th, แปลก พิบูลสงคราม ; alternatively transcribed as ''Pibulsongkram'' or ''Pibulsonggram''; 14 July 1897 – 11 June 1964), locally known as Marshal P. ( th, จอมพล ...
(also known as "Phibun"), agreed to aid Operation Paper, due to poor Thai-Burmese relations and the promise of American economic and military aid.Kaufman, Victor S
"Trouble in the Golden Triangle: The United States, Taiwan and the 93rd Nationalist Division"
''The China Quarterly''. No. 166, Jun. 2001. p.441. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
Between 1949 and 1953 Li's men impressed thousands of local tribesmen into joining them, and were reinforced with several hundred former army officers and trainers from Formosa. Refugees from communist-held Yunnan also joined his army. Many married local women, and they systematically "took over" the local opium trade. With the help of the Thai military, Li's army traded their opium through Thailand, exchanging it for weapons and supplies delivered from Taiwan. They made serious attempts to take control of Yunnan during this period, but did not achieve long-term success. At one point there were 20,000 pro-KMT soldiers attempting to recover Yunnan. The operation liberated four counties before their logistical network broke down, and Mi's forces were not able to achieve their goal. There were several reasons for the American decision to put pressure on Chiang to remove Nationalist troops from Burma. An internal document investigating the usefulness of the Burmese Nationalist troops to the United States concluded that they were "of less military value to the free world as a support to regional defense than the regularly organized
Burmese Army The Myanmar Army ( my, တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း), ) is the largest branch of the Tatmadaw, Armed Forces (''Tatmadaw'') of Myanmar (Burma) and has the primary responsibility of conducting land-based military operations. The My ...
". Communist insurgents then present in Burma were known to cite the presence of Li's troops as their justification for being there. Additionally, if Rangoon were to devote their resources to defeating Li's troops, it would weaken their ability to defeat these other, communist guerrilla movements. The American secretary or state,
John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...
, was concerned that the Burmese government might form a coalition with communist groups to remove Li's troops. There were also concerns that China might invade Burma in order to suppress them. After returning to Taiwan in 1953, Li Mi retired from active military service, becoming a member of the Nationalist legislature and the party's central committee. He died in Taipei on 10 March 1973.


Legacy

Following a partial withdrawal of troops to Taiwan, in 1960 the
Burmese Army The Myanmar Army ( my, တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း), ) is the largest branch of the Tatmadaw, Armed Forces (''Tatmadaw'') of Myanmar (Burma) and has the primary responsibility of conducting land-based military operations. The My ...
continued military efforts to remove them, possibly with the assistance from 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 ...
.There is insufficient evidence to know for certain if the PLA actively aided the Burmese Army, but Burma signed an agreement with China authorizing the PLA to conduct operations twelve miles into Burma to combat the 93rd Division, and American intelligence believed that the PLA had done this. By 1961, most remaining Nationalist forces had moved their bases inside
Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
and Thailand, with the consent of those nations' governments and armies. Many were used by the governments of Thailand and Laos to combat communist insurgents in their countries. By 1967, Nationalist Chinese troops fought a war against a rival warlord,
Khun Sa Chinese: Chang Chi-fu () , other_name = th, จันทร์ จางตระกูล (Chan Changtrakul); Tun Sa; U Htet Aung , image = Khun Sa (9to12).jpg , alt = , caption = Khun Sa at his jungle headquarters ...
, for control of local opium production and distribution. They were quickly successful in the ensuing "Opium War", and continued to monopolize the local opium trade. Subsequent efforts by Chiang Kai-shek to reassert control over these troops failed, and they became effectively independent of Nationalist control. In 1961, Li's former troops who had retreated into northwestern Thailand agreed to combat local Communist insurgents in exchange for official residence, as they had no legal status. Under the nominal command of the Thai army, the unit was renamed the "Chinese Irregular Forces" (CIF), and continued to grow and distribute opium in order to fund their anti-communist activities. In the late 1980s, the Thai government concluded that the CIF's anti-Communist activities had been successful, and they were granted Thai resident status. Their descendants mostly settled around village of
Santikhiri The village of Santikhiri ( th, สันติคีรี), formerly known as Mae Salong ( th, แม่สลอง, ), is in the Thai highlands on Doi Mae Salong mountain of the Daen Lao Range, in Mae Fa Luang District, Chiang Rai Province ...
.


Footnotes


External References

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090326011824/http://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/bjorge_huai.pdf * http://www.generals.dk.html
Ministry of National Defense R.O.C

US Naval War College
* https://web.archive.org/web/20090326011824/http://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/bjorge_huai.pdf
Portrait of Li in 1948
{{DEFAULTSORT:Li Mi (Roc General) Chinese military personnel of World War II National Revolutionary Army generals from Yunnan Chinese anti-communists People of the Chinese Civil War Whampoa Military Academy alumni 1902 births 1973 deaths Recipients of the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun People from Tengchong Chinese Civil War refugees Taiwanese people from Yunnan