Tao Zhu
Chinese proletarian revolutionist Tao Zhu passed away in Hefei, Anhui Province, at the age of 61. He was born in 1908 in Hunan Province, and entered the Huangpu Military Academy in 1926. He joined the Party in the same year. He held the posts of Secretary of the Party Committee in Fujian Province and Secretary of Special Commission in Zhangzhou City from 1929 to 1933. During this period, Tao founded the Red Army guerilla unit in south Fujian and the People's Military Force in east Fujian. He was arrested by the Kuomintang in Shanghai in May, 1933, and was rescued in 1937.
Tao went to Yan'an in Shaanxi Province in 1940 and took the offices of Secretary of the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the General Political Department. He served the posts of Secretary of the Provincial Committee in Liaoning, Liaoji and Liaobei, as well as Political Commissar of the 7th Column of the Northeast Field Army. During the Peiping-Tianjin campaign from November 29, 1948, to January 31, 1949, Tao entered Peiping (former name of Beijing) in disguise and negotiated with General Fu Zuoyi. He then became in charge of the rearrangement of troops in Peiping and the liberation work group that was heading south.
After the founding of the PRC in 1949, Tao worked as director of the Political Department of the Central South Military Area, Secretary of the CPC Committee of South China and Guangdong Province, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC, Vice Premier of the State Council, Minister of the Central Propaganda Department and member of the 2nd and 3rd National Committees of the CPPCC. He was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution.
