Wang Zhen (1908–93) was a Chinese political figure & one
of the Eight Elders of the Communist Party of China.
He was the 4th Vice President of China & served under
Chinese Presidents Yang Shangkun & Li Xiannian. Wang Zhen
was the first Vice Chairman to serve in the Central Advisory

Commission.

His first job aged 16 was as an labor in a railway station
office, but he was dismissed after slapping a foreign woman,
the wife of a foreign manager of the railroad. After an
unsuccessful bank robbery in the name of revolution Wang
joined the Long March which happens to be where he was
fleeing from lawman. He took part in the 1934-5 Long March.
In 1942, after Mao appointed Wang to head a rectification
of Communist writers, he responded by citing his lack of
schooling. Mao responded that "It's just someone without
much education that I want to deal with these cultural
people."

During WWII when the communist base in northwestern China
was blockaded by Kuomintang forces under the command of
Hu Zongnan, Wang Zhen gained fame as the brigade commander
of the 359th Brigade for successfully converting waste land
in Nanniwan into productive farm land, & the agricultural
output not only supported the brigade itself, but also with
a substantial surplus to support other parts of the communist
base. The success was later lauded by the communists as an
example of self-sufficiency.

In Oct 1945, one month after the surrender of the Japanese,
Wang was promoted to lead one of the 7 columns of the
Northwest Field Army, under the command of Peng Dehuai.
Wang fought against the Kuomintang until most of Chiang
Kai-shek's forces were withdrawn to Taiwan in Sept 1949.
In Oct Wang's forces were directed by Peng to occupy
Xinjiang. Most defenders surrendered peacefully to Wang
& were incorporated into the PLA.

Wang was head of the military govt in Xinjiang from 1950-52
& earned a reputation for brutality towards the native
Uyghurs, writing to Mao Zedong that they were "a trouble-
making minority" & suggested they be "thoroughly wiped out"
to avoid any future problems. Mao apparently thought this
too extreme, & Wang was redeployed, but Wang remains a
folk-hero among Han Chinese settlers in Xinjiang to the
present day, while Uyghur mothers in Xinjiang still warn
their children to be good "or else Wang Zhen will come &
get you."

A local legend circulating among the Han Chinese population
in Xinjiang recounts that in 1950, as Wang Zhen conquered
southern Xinjiang, a Han man had prepared a meal of pork
in a Uyghur village, & was killed by the villagers, who
were offended as pork is prohibited in Islam. Wang Zhen then
had his troops surround the village, forced the villagers
to hand over the perpetrators & publicly executed them in
the village square. Afterwards, he had his troops slaughter
pigs & boil them, upon which the troops then forced all
remaining residents of the village to eat a bowl of boiled
pork at bayonet point.

After the communist revolution, Wang Zhen was one of only
two Chinese commanders who were authorized to carry guns
when visiting Mao Zedong. The other one was Xu Shiyou,
but Xu never carried a gun when visiting Mao. Wang Zhen,
on the other hand, wore his gun for his first visit. When
stopped by Mao's bodyguards, Wang Zhen began to argue with
them. Mao investigated the noise, & told his bodyguards that
he trusted Wang fully, & unless Wang was carrying atomic
bombs, Wang could carry anything he wanted when he visited
Mao. After that incident, Wang never wore a weapon while
visiting Mao.

Despite his uncorrupt behavior in the 50s & his strong
support for Chinese economic reform, Wang Zhen was not
popular among Chinese people after 1979 due to his
political hard-line conservatism. His support of Deng
Xiaoping & being a member of his regime was largely due to
his close personal friendship with Deng, which was further
strengthened by their common opposition to radical
political reforms. As one of the architects of the
suppression by force of the pro-democracy protesters in
Tiananmen Sq in 1989, he was quoted in the Tiananmen Papers
as stating in a meeting with other Communist Party of
China elders on June 2, 1989: "We should announce in
advance to those people occupying the Square that we're
coming in. They can listen or not as they choose, but then
we move in. If it causes deaths, that's their own fault.
We can't be soft or merciful toward anti-Party, anti-
socialist elements." He served as the Vice-President of
the People's Republic of China from 1988-1993 under
President Yang Shangkun.

In Aug 1989 a colonel in the People's Liberation Army,
Zhang Zhenglong, published a 618-page reflection of his
experiences fighting for the Red Army in Manchuria in the
late 40s, White Snow, Red Blood. In this book, Zhang claimed
that Wang Zhen had smuggled opium during the Chinese Civil War.
This and other claims made Zhang a target of Wang. Zhang was
eventually arrested for making these claims, and his book
was censored in mainland China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Zhen_(general)