Background
There is some confusion about the identification of Wang Ping-chang, for there appear to be two men by this name born only a few years apart. Japanese sources list a Wang Ping-chang born in Hunan about 1908.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Wang Ping-chang
Edit Profileminister politician air force officer
Education
He later attended a Red Army academy in Moscow. A Wang Ping-chang is listed in the student directory of the well-known Whampoa Military Academy at Canton, this Wang, a native of Inner Mongolia. Allowing for discrepancies in reporting birth dates, both reports could refer to the same man. This, however, seems unlikely. As a graduate of Whampoa, from which many cadets entered the CCP in the middle 1920’s a man would probably have been eligible for all three top national military honors (initially awarded in 1955), each of these awards being for service during a distinct period in the years between 1927 and 1950. In 1955 Wang Ping-chang won only the Liberation Order, that given for service from 1945 to 1950. This would seem more appropriate for the man whose career is given here, who it is assumed did not attend Whampoa.
Career
Although the Chinese Air Force existed chiefly on paper in 1949, Wang was already associated with it in some capacity. It was as a representative of the Air Force that he was named to the preparatory committee of the All China Athletic Federation (ACAF) when it was formed in October 1949. Wang was not heard of again until the ACAF was established on a permanent basis in June 1952, at which time he was named to its National Committee. (He was not re-elected, however, at the next congress in October 1956.) It was also in mid-1952 that Wang was identified as a deputy commander of the Air Force in the Central-South Military Region. However, he was soon in Peking attending a national sports meet sponsored by the PLA in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Red Army (a holiday falling on August 1), Wang has been in Peking continuously since that time.
Although the Chinese Air Force existed chiefly on paper in 1949, Wang was already associated with it in some capacity. It was as a representative of the Air Force that he was named to the preparatory committee of the AllChina Athletic Federation (ACAF) when it was formed in October 1949. Wang was not heard of again until the ACAF was established on a permanent basis in June 1952, at which time he was named to its National Committee. (He was not re-elected, however, at the next congress in October 1956.) It was also in mid-1952 that Wang was identified as a deputy commander of the Air Force in the Central-South Military Region. However, he was soon in Peking attending a national sports meet sponsored by the PLA in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Red Army (a holiday falling on August 1), Wang has been in Peking continuously since that time.
Wang’s work in the Air Force was rewarded in 1954 and 1955 with an appointment and a military award. In September 1954 he was named to membership on the newly formed National Defense Council, a military advisory body with little power but considerable prestige. He was subsequently renamed to the council in April 1959 and January 1965. The military award was the above-mentioned Order of Liberation, given for distinguished military service during the years 1945 to 1950. Personal military ranks were also created at this time; Wang was made a lieutenant general of the Air Force (equivalent to a two-star general in the U.S. Air Force).
Politics
In the mid-1950’s Wang was mentioned in the national press regularly in the performance of such activities as entertaining foreign visitors, negotiating agreements, or attending conferences. For example, he attended a party for visiting Burmese Premier U Nu in December 1954 and later that month welcomed a Soviet delegation that had arrived to negotiate a civil air agreement. Wang presumably took part in these negotiations, which led to the signing of a civil air service agreement in late December 1954. In March 1955 he gave the opening address before the first congress of Air Force “heroes and models.” Wang took his second trip abroad in October-November 1956 when he was a member of a military delegation led by General Teng Hua to Yugoslavia. Following this, very little was heard of him for several years, although he was reappointed to the National Defense Council in 1959. He began to reappear at public functions again in 1961, and in 1964 was elected as an Air Force deputy to the Third NPC, which held its first session in December 1964-January 1965. At the close of this session, Wang was named to head the newly created Seventh Ministry of Machine Building, a ministry probably engaged in the production of aeronautical equipment. It is not clear if Wang has retained his post as deputy commander of the Air Force.
-
Born
-
Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
-
Political Party
Chinese Communist Party
Career
-
1945 - 1950
-
1952
-
1952
-
1954