Du Yuming

Du Yuming (Chinese: 杜聿明; pinyin: Dù Yùmíng; Wade–Giles: Tu Yü-ming; 28 November 1904 – 7 May 1981) was a Kuomintang field commander. He was a graduate of the first class of Whampoa Academy, took part in Chiang's Northern Expedition, and was active in southern China and in the Burma theatre of the Sino-Japanese War. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, he was an important commander in the Chinese Civil War. From 1945 to 1947 Du commanded Nationalist forces in Northeast China and won several important battles against Communist forces there, including defeating the Communist general Lin Biao twice at Siping. Despite his successes, Chiang relieved him from command in 1947, after which Communist forces quickly took control of the region. Du was captured later in the civil war and spent a decade as a prisoner of war. He was released in 1959, and given a position in the Communist government. Yang Chen-Ning, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, was his son-in-law.