Nie served in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from 1929 until his retirement.[2] He was involved in founding the PLAAF,[2] and commanded the PLA's first aerial unit, the 4th Mixed Aviation Brigade, which was established on 19 June 1950 in Nanjing and consisted of 155 aircraft in one attack, one bomber, and two fighter regiments.[3][4] He attained the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.[1]
At the time of the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, Nie commanded the East China (Huadong) Air Force.[7][8] During the Crisis, he served as vice-commander of the Zhejiang Front Command (ZFC)—established in 1954 by order of Mao Zedong and led by Zhang Aiping—and commanded the ZFC air force. He was one of the architects of the campaign to capture the Dachen Islands from the Republic of China. During a meeting of the ZFC commanders on 31 August 1954, Nie opposed the "majority opinion" favoring an immediate amphibious invasion of Dachen, and instead supported the "limited piecemeal tactics" proposed by Zhang. The resulting "Zhang-Nie plan" involved a focus on Yijiangshan Island, north of Dachen, and led to the Battle of Yijiangshan Islands in January 1955. During the course of the campaign, Nie personally spoke with every PLA pilot participating in operations in order to convey the order issued by the Central Military Commission to avoid direct confrontation with American air forces.[7][9]
^ abShu Guang 1992, p. 218: "General Nie Fengzhi, then air force commander of the East China Military region, recalls ordering his pilots not to engage any U.S. planes without express and prior approval from the Zhedong Front Command headquarters."
Xiaoming, Zhang. "Air Combat for the People's Republic: The People's Liberation Army Air Force in Action, 1949–1969". In Ryan, Finkelstein & McDevitt (2003), pp. 270–300.
Xiaoming, Zhang (2003a). Red Wings Over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN978-1-58544-340-6.
