Zhang Tingfa

Zhang Tingfa (; 9 April 1918 – 25 March 2010) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and a major general of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). He served as Political Commissar and Commander of the PLAAF, and was a member of the Central Military Commission (CMC). He also served two terms as a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, before retiring in 1985. He fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War, and commanded the Chinese Air Force during the Sino-Vietnamese War.

Republic of China era Zhang Tingfa was born on 9 April 1918 in Xiamao Town, Sha County, Fujian Province, to a family of craftsmen. He enlisted in the Red Army in September 1933, and participated in the Long March in 1934–35. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in November 1936.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhang was an officer of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and fought in the celebrated Hundred Regiments Offensive. In 1944 he was appointed commander of the Seventh Subdistrict of the Taihang Military District, and participated in several battles against the Japanese occupation force in northern China.

Zhang retired from his leadership positions in July 1985, and became a member of the Central Advisory Commission (CAC) in September. On 25 March 2010, he died in Beijing at the age of 91.