YEH T'ING

born 1897, Hui-chou, Kwangtung province, China died April 8, 1946, Shansi province Pinyin Ye Ting, also called Yeh Hsi-p'ing outstanding Chinese military leader. Yeh is thought to have been of peasant origin, but he was educated at the Pao-ting Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1919. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1925 and within a year was commander of a vanguard unit on the Northern Expedition. He was a key figure in the Nan-ch'ang Uprising of Aug. 1, 1927, and commanded Communist units during the Canton Commune, after the coup of Dec. 11, 1927, in that city. Both of these attempts by the CCP to seize power were quickly nullified by the Nationalists (Kuomintang). In 1928 Yeh went to the Soviet Union and in 1929 to western Europe, where he remained for five years. In October 1937, after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Yeh was appointed commander of the (Communist) New 4th Army. The cooperation that had been initiated between the Communists and the Nationalists soon deteriorated, however, and in January 1941 Yeh (while at Nationalist headquarters) was arrested and his troops were ambushed. At the time of what became known as the New 4th Army Incident, the army had about 100,000 men, 9,000 of whom were killed, wounded, or captured. Yeh himself was held prisoner for five years by the Nationalists and soon after his release was killed in an airplane accident.