Xiang began to take part in the revolution at the age of 15, and successively participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Civil War and Korean War. He was eventually purged during the Cultural Revolution but later reinstated. He is hailed as founding father of the Chinese ballistic missile forces. Later in his life, he served as commander of the Nanjing Military Region until his retirement in 1990.[4]
In 1933 he joined the Young Pioneers in the Shuanghechang area and served as its captain. In 1934 he enlisted in the Red Army and successively served as soldier, squad leader, and platoon sergeant. In 1935 he took part in the Communist Youth League. He participated in the counter-campaign against "encirclement and suppression" of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area; after the war, the Red Army were defeated and he participated in the Long March, a forced expedition over 12,500 km (7,800 mi) in the 1930s. In 1936 he attended the Red Army Infantry School and that same year became a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he assumed various posts in the 129th Infantry Division, including company commander, battalion commander, and regimental commander. He was present at the Battle of Linnan in 1943 and the Battle of Taihang Mountains.
During the Chinese Civil War, he was deputy division leader of the First Squad of the Taihang Military Region. He took part in the Battle of Handan. Then he participated in many campaigns, such as the Battle of North Henan, Battle of East Henan, Battle of Zhengzhou, Crossing River Campaigns, and Southwest Campaign.
In the winter of 1951, he was chief of staff of the Fifteenth Army and participated in the fifth campaign of the Korean War to counter the fall of tactical combat; he suffered head injuries. After the war in 1955 he was awarded the military rank of major general (shao jiang) by Mao Zedong.
In 1958 he was accepted to the PLA National Defence University, where he graduated in 1960. After graduation in June, Prime Minister Zhou Enlai appointed him as president of Xi'an Artillery School (now PLA Rocket Force University of Engineering). During his term in office, the DF-1 missile was launched successfully.[6] In August 1965 the Chinese government commissioned him as deputy commander of the Second Artillery Force. In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. He was promoted to commander on July 4, 1967, but having held the position for only 43 days, he was discharged by Lin Biao because "he's out of Lin's faction".[6] He was sent to prisons and suffered political persecution over the next six years.
He returned to work in 1972 and then was appointed commander and CCP first secretary of the Second Artillery Force. He served as deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region in September 1977, and five years later promoted to the Commander position, serving in the post until his retirement in 1990. In 1987 he was elected as a member of the 2nd Central Advisory Commission. He was promoted to the rank of general (shang jiang) in 1988. Xiang died on September 2, 2017, in Nanjing, at age 99.
Work
Xiang Shouzhi (2006-05-01). 向守志回忆录 [Memoirs of Xiang Shouzhi] (in Chinese). Beijing: Chinese People's Liberation Army Publishing House. ISBN9787506551328.
Personal life
Xiang married Zhang Ling (张玲, born in 1919 in Kaifeng, Henan) in Pingdong County of Shandong Province on May 25, 1945. They had four children.[6]
