Zhang Yan (born 1917)

Zhang Yan (Chinese: 张衍; 1917 – 3 August 2003) was a major general (shaojiang) of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) who served as president of the National University of Defense Technology from 1978 to 1983. He was a member of the 6th and 7th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

After the founding of the Communist State in 1949, Zhang participated in the preparatory work of Harbin Institute of Military Engineering and served as director of its Political Department. He was promoted to the rank of major general (Shaojiang) in 1961. In October 1965, he was made political commissar of Xi'an Military Telecommunication Engineering College. During the Cultural Revolution, he was brought to be persecuted and suffered political persecution. He was named party secretary of Northwest Institute of Telecommunication Engineering in October 1973 and then party secretary of the Tenth Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense in July 1976. In July 1977, he became deputy director of the State Planning Commission. In September 1978, he was appointed president of National University of Defense Technology, and served until December 1983, when he was transferred to the Central Military Commission. He retired in July 1998. On 3 August 2003, he died from an illness in Beijing, aged 86.

Zhang was born Zhang Jiankai (张剑凯) in Lingbi County, Anhui, in 1917, while his ancestral home in Tengzhou, Shandong. In 1928, he attended Liji Primary School (李集小学). Influenced by teacher and Communist Wang Jianmin (王健民), he joined the Student Counter Japanese Volunteer Army. In 1937, he was admitted to Counter-Japanese Military and Political University. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in February 1938. He fought under Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping at the Battle of North Henan in 1943 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In September 1948, he became deputy director of the Political Department of Zhongyuan Military and Political University, he remained at there until June 1949, when he took office as director of the Propaganda and Education Division of the Political Department of the Second Field Army Military and Political University.