Ye Ting
After the eruption of the Cultural Revolution, the young engineer Ye Zhengguang (a son of General Ye Ting) overthrew the Seventh Ministry leadership and removed Minister Wang Bingzhang and Vice Minister Qian Xuesen. Two rival factions in the ministry battled each other, and Yao was killed by a mob on June 8, 1968. After this loss of one of China's foremost missile engineers, Zhou Enlai ordered special protection for key technical experts.