Yang Zhenhuai

Yang Zhenhuai (; September 1928 – 19 October 2024) was a Chinese politician who served as Minister of Water Resources from 1988 to 1993.

Yang was an alternate member of the 14th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. He was a member of the 7th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Early life and education Yang was born in Hefei County (now Hefei), Anhui, in September 1928, and graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1950. His cousin Yang Zhenning is a physicist and Nobel laureate.

Career Yang joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in May 1950. In 1954, he was assigned to Beidahuang as captain of the Mulinghe Water Conservancy Work Team at the Shenyang Design Institute of the Ministry of Water Resources. Two years later, he was promoted to director and engineer of the Water Engineering Department of Harbin Design Institute. After 1959, he became director and then vice president of the Water Engineering Office of Heilongjiang Provincial Water Conservancy Design Institute.

In 1966, the Cultural Revolution broke out, he suffered political persecution and was sent to the May Seventh Cadre Schools to do farm works. He was reinstated in 1974.

Yang was transferred to Beijing in 1979 and appointed director and senior engineer of the Water Resources Research Institute of the Water Resources and Hydropower Science Research Academy and subsequently deputy director and chief engineer of the Haihe Water Conservancy Commission in 1982. In 1983, he became vice minister of water resources and electric power (later reshuffled as Ministry of Water Resources), rising to minister in 1988. In March 1993, he took office as vice chairperson of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress.

On 19 October 2024, Yang died in Beijing at the age of 96.