General Liu Huaqing
刘华清
Liu Huaqing
Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission
In office State Commission: 28 March 1993 – 5 March 1998 Party Commission: November 1989 – 18 September 1997 Serving with Yang Shangkun,Zhang Zhen,Chi Haotian andZhang Wannian
Chairman	Jiang Zemin
Commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy
In office August 1982 – January 1988
Preceded by	Ye Fei
Succeeded by	Zhang Lianzhong
Personal details
Born	(1916-10-01)1 October 1916 Huang'an County,Hubei, China
Died	14 January 2011(2011-01-14) (aged 94) Beijing, China
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Children	Liu Zhuoming Liu Chaoying
Alma mater	Kuznetsov Naval Academy
Military service
Allegiance	People's Republic of China
Branch/service	Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Eighth Route Army  People's Liberation Army Ground Force  People's Liberation Army Navy
Years of service	1930–1998
Rank	General
Awards	August 1 Medal (2nd Class) Order of Independence and Freedom (2nd Class) Order of Liberation (1st Class)
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	刘华清
Traditional Chinese	劉華清
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Liú Huáqīng

Liu Huaqing (Chinese:刘华清; 1 October 1916 – 14 January 2011)^[1] was a Chineserevolutionary and anadmiral of thePeople's Liberation Army Navy, who served as the thirdCommander-in-Chief of the Navy from 1982 through 1988. He is considered to have greatly contributed to themodernization of the Chinese Navy, and is hailed as the "father of the modern Chinese Navy" and "father of Chinese aircraft carriers".

Liu joined theCommunist Youth League of China in October 1929, before joining theChinese Red Army in December 1930 and becoming an official member of theChinese Communist Party in October 1935. He participated in theLong March as Head of the Organisation, Propaganda, Culture and Printing Section of the Political Department of the25th Army during the period from 1934-1936.

During theSecond Sino-Japanese War, Liu advanced through the ranks, culminating in becoming the Deputy Political Commissar of the Political Department of theJili-Yu Military Region.

At the start of theChinese Civil War's second phase after the defeat of Japan, Liu was thepolitical commissar of the 6th Brigade, 2nd Division in the Jin-Hebei-Lu-Yu Military District. By 1949, he had become the political commissar of the 11th Army, 3rd Corps of theSecond Field Army.^[2]

Following thevictory over the Kuomintang, Liu was the deputy political commissar of the 10th Army, before being appointed as the vice-principal and deputy political commissar of theDalian Naval Academy in 1952. In 1954, Liu was sent to theVoroshilov Naval Academy in theSoviet Union along with a group of senior cadres to study.^[3] Upon returning from the Soviet Union, Liu was awarded the rank ofAdmiral in 1955. In 1958, he was Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of theLushun Naval Base as well as being Deputy Commander of theNorth Sea Fleet, before being promoted to Commander of the Lushun Naval Base.

In 1965, Liu left the military to become the Vice Minister of theSixth Ministry of Machine Building. In 1966, he was made Deputy Director of theCommission for Defence Technology.

During theCultural Revolution, Liu's career was relatively unimpaired. He was transferred officially to the Navy in 1969 along with being appointed to theNaval Shipbuilding Industry Group as its director. In 1970, Liu was made Deputy Chief of Staff of thePeople's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and took up a high position in theChinese Academy of Sciences in 1975.^[4]

Following the end of the Cultural Revolution and the beginning of theReform and Opening Up period, Liu travelled to theUnited States to visit American aircraft carriers. He was then appointed Commander of the PLAN in 1982.

Taking over the role of Navy Commander-in-Chief from his predecessorYe Fei (who retired due to health problems in 1982), Liu had outlined a three-step process by which China would have a navy of global reach by the second half of the 21st century. In step one, from 2000 to 2010, China would develop a naval force that could operate up to thefirst island chain. In step two, from 2010 to 2020, China's navy would become a regional force capable of projecting force to thesecond island chain. In step three, to be achieved by 2040, China would possess ablue-water navy centered aroundaircraft carriers.^[5] He was a strong advocate of theChinese aircraft carrier programme.

During that time, Liu was a member of theCentral Military Commission (CMC), and was the top commander of thetroops enforcing martial law to suppress theTiananmen Square protests on 3–4 June 1989.^[6]

In 1990, Liu became the Vice Chairman of the CMC.^[7]: 261

In 1992, Liu became the 6th-ranked member of thePolitburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party's top leadership body.^[7]: 261 He was the last active military member to sit on the Standing Committee, and since his departure from the Standing Committee in 1997, no other military leader has sat on the Committee. Liu officially retired from the military after stepping down as Vice Chairman of the CMC in March 1998.

Liu remained active through the mid-1990s and appeared in uniform at 2007 commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the founding of thePeople's Liberation Army in Beijing. He also appeared inBeijing during the60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 2009.

Liu died on 14 January 2011 in Beijing.^[8] His sonLiu Zhuoming is avice admiral of the PLA Navy.^[9] His daughterLiu Chaoying, a former lieutenant colonel in the PLA, was a major figure in the1996 United States campaign finance controversy.^[10]

• (in Chinese)Biography of Liu Huaqing
• Ruminations about how little we know about the PLA Navy. Conference on Chinese Military Affairs, 10 October 2000

• 1916 births
• 2011 deaths
• Commanders of the People's Liberation Army Navy
• Chinese military writers
• Chinese military personnel of World War II
• 20th-century Chinese writers
• N. G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy alumni
• People from Xiaogan
• Writers from Hubei
• Members of the 14th Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
• Military theorists
• Members of the 12th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
• Delegates to the 7th National People's Congress
• Delegates to the 8th National People's Congress

• Articles containing Chinese-language text
• CS1 uses Chinese-language script (zh)
• CS1 Chinese-language sources (zh)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2021
• Articles containing simplified Chinese-language text
• Articles with Chinese-language sources (zh)