Du Yuming
Encyclopedia
Du Yuming was a Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

 field commander active in the Sino-Japanese War theatre of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and in the Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...

 from 1945 to 1949.

A trusted protégé of Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

, Du was a graduate of the first cadet class at the Whampoa Military Academy
Whampoa Military Academy
The Nationalist Party of China Army Officer Academy , commonly known as the Whampoa Military Academy , was a military academy in the Republic of China that produced many prestigious commanders who fought in many of China's conflicts in the 20th century, notably the Northern Expedition, the Second...

. During the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

, he commanded the KMT 5th Corps in the First Changsha Campaign
Battle of Changsha (1939)
Battle of Changsha was the first attempt by Japan to take the city of Changsha, China, during the second Sino-Japanese War. It was the first major battle of the war to fall within the timeframe of what's widely considered World War II.- Background and strategy :The war had already reached a...

, and Battle of South Guangxi
Battle of South Guangxi
The Battle of South Guangxi , was one of the 22 major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.In November 1939, the Japanese landed on the coast of Guangxi and captured Nanning...

.

During World War II, he commanded the same 5th Corps or Nationalist Fifth Army in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road
Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road
Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road was the name of the Chinese intervention to aid their British allies in the 1942 Burma Campaign. Its forces were composed of the Fifth, Sixth and Sixty-sixth Army under the command of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, commanded by Lt. General Joseph Stilwell, Lt...

 from mid March to early June 1942, during the Burma Campaign
Burma Campaign
The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from...

 under Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell
Joseph Stilwell
General Joseph Warren Stilwell was a United States Army four-star General known for service in the China Burma India Theater. His caustic personality was reflected in the nickname "Vinegar Joe"...

. When the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 collapsed and abandoned their Chinese saviours to their fate, Du was forced to order a hastily planned withdrawal that resulted in the loss of 50,000 Chinese soldiers. Yet, Du was also criticized for dismissing General Sun Li-Jen
Sun Li-jen
Sun Li-jen was a Kuomintang General, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His achievements earned him the laudatory nickname "Rommel of the East". His New 1st Army was reputed as the "1st [Best] Army under heaven" and credited with defeating...

's advice that the route back to China is hazardous and should instead retreat with the British to India. Most men that followed Du Died in the Burmese jungle of tropical disease and starvation or were killed by the Axis forces. On the other hand, Sun's army retreated in an orderly fashion into India.

After the war, Du helped strengthen the Nationalist position in the Southwest by removing Long Yun
Long Yun
Long Yun was governor and warlord of the Chinese province of Yunnan from 1927 to near the end of the Chinese Civil War, when he was overthrown in a coup by Du Yuming under the order of Chiang Kai-shek in October, 1945.-Life:Long Yun was an sinicized ethnic Yi , a non Han Chinese people native to...

, the local warlord of Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

 Province in October 1945. Du was then transferred to the Northeast Theatre to consolidate Kuomintang control. For most of the Civil War, he served as a field commander in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...

 and Eastern China.

Toward the end of the struggles against the communists, Du correctly guessed that Major General Guo Rugui(郭汝瑰), one of Chiang's most trusted staff officers, was a communist agent but the only evidence he came up with was that unlike most corrupted nationalist cadres and officers, the suspected communist spy was clean. Obviously, this was not a good reason and Chiang was enraged when Du presented his view, because Chiang interpreted such reason would imply that all of the nationalists were corrupted, and only the communists were clean, not mentioning the fact that Du's wife was once a communist herself.

Du was captured during the Huaihai Campaign
Huaihai Campaign
Huaihai Campaign or Battle of Hsupeng was a military action during 1948 and 1949 that was the determining battle of the Chinese Civil War. It was one of the few conventional battles of the war. 550,000 troops of the Republic of China were surrounded in Xuzhou and destroyed by the communist...

 and held in communist prisons until his pardon in 1959, after which he was rewarded a high-ranking position in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference [], shortened as 人民政协, Rénmín Zhèngxié, i.e. "People's PCC"; or just 政协, Zhèngxié, i.e. "The PCC"), abbreviated CPPCC, is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China...

, reportedly because the Chinese government wanted to convince his son-in-law, the Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...

 winner Yang Zhenning to return to China. The communist agent Du correctly suspected was also in the same political organization and the two became friends.

See also

  • Sun Liren
  • New 1st Army
    New 1st Army
    New 1st Army was reputed as the most elite Chinese military unit of the Kuomintang. Nicknamed the "1st [Best] Army Under the Heaven" during the Chinese Civil War, it caused the most Japanese Army casualties during the Sino-Japanese War ....

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