Ye Jizhuang

Ye Jizhuang (; 1893–1967) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician nicknamed the "Red Manager".

Red Army and Long March After Chiang Kai-shek turned against the Communists at the Shanghai massacre in 1927, Ye participated in the Guangzhou Uprising (1927) and the Baise Uprising (1929) led by Deng Xiaoping. He was a co-founder of the Seventh Army of the Chinese Red Army and served as Director of its Political Department. After the Seventh Army reached the Jiangxi Soviet, the central Communist base, he was appointed Director of the Logistics Department of the Red Army. A major task of his was to circumvent the trade embargo against the PRC by the United States and its allies. Under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, he developed trade relations with Asian and African countries and signed China's first trade deal with Ceylon.

Ye suffered a stroke in 1961 when he was on an official trip in Guangzhou. He became incapacitated by another stroke in 1964, and his deputy Lin Haiyun took over as acting minister in 1965. Already in very poor health, Ye came under persecution when the Cultural Revolution began in 1966. He was pressured to incriminate his former superior Deng Xiaoping, but refused to do so. As he was bedridden, his doctors prevented the Red Guards from taking him to struggle sessions, and his wife Ma Luzhen was taken in his place.

Ye died on 27 June 1967 at the age of 74. He was politically rehabilitated after the end of the Cultural Revolution. He is now recognized as an essential figure in the logistics of the People's Liberation Army during wartime, and the management of foreign trade of the early PRC. He is honoured as the "Red Manager" of the Communist Party.