Ye Fei Ye Fei ( ; 7 May 1914 – 18 April 1999 ) was a Filipino - Chinese military general and politician of the People ' s Republic of China . Born Sixto Mercado Tiongco in the Philippines to a Chinese father and a Filipina mother , he joined the Chinese Communist Party at a young age and fought many battles as a senior commander of the People ' s Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War . At age 40 , he was among the first PLA commanders to be awarded the rank of General by the newly established People ' s Republic of China and later served as Commander - in - Chief of the Chinese Navy . He also served in a number of civilian posts including Governor and Communist Party Chief of Fujian Province , and Minister of Transport . Early life . Birth in the Philippines . Ye Fei was born Sixto Mercado Tiongco on 7 May 1914 in Tiaong , Quezon Province , in the Philippines . His father was Yap Sun Uy ( 叶荪卫 ; Yap is the Minnan pronunciation of the Chinese surname Ye ) , a Chinese merchant from Nan ' an , Fujian Province who had moved to the Philippines in 1900 and adopted the Filipino name Tiongco . Yap converted to Catholicism in order to marry Ye Fei ' s mother Francisca Mercado , a Filipina from a local Catholic family . Ye Fei ' s original Chinese name was Ye Qiheng ( 叶启亨 ) . Youth in China . In 1919 Ye Fei , then four years old , and his older brother Ye Qicun ( 叶启存 ) , were brought by their father to his Chinese hometown for schooling . Starting in 1926 he attended Zhongshan Middle School in Xiamen and then the Thirteenth High School of Fujian . Ye Fei joined the underground Communist Youth League of China in May 1928 , and the Communist Party of China in March 1932 . In 1932 he was arrested by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China and sentenced to a year in prison . As he was a Filipino citizen , his parents managed to arrange for his extradition to the Philippines , and his mother set out for China to take him back . However , by the time Francisca Mercado reached Hong Kong , Ye Fei was already released from prison . Telling his mother that he was going to study in Japan , he instead went to eastern Fujian to help establish the Communist guerrilla there . Wartime career . Chinese Civil War . In 1934 the Communist Red Army suffered a series of defeats by Chiang Kai - shek ' s Kuomintang forces , and started the Long March . With the escape of the Communist leadership from neighbouring Jiangxi Province to remote Shaanxi Province , Ye Fei ' s Eastern Fujian guerrilla was cut off from the main Communist forces and fought in isolation for three years . His older brother Ye Qicun was killed in the late 1930s by the Kuomintang . Second Sino - Japanese War . After the eruption of the Second Sino - Japanese War , the civil war between the Communists and Kuomintang was suspended , and the two parties agreed to form a United Front to fight the invading Japanese . Ye Fei was made a regiment commander in the newly formed New Fourth Army and moved to the Jiangnan region to continue his guerrilla warfare , this time against the Japanese occupying force . His early activities included 1939 attacks on the Japanese - controlled Shanghai – Nanjing Railway and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport . In 1940 Ye Fei moved across the Yangtze River to northern Jiangsu Province to continue fighting the Japanese as well as the Kuomintang , the nominal ally of the Communists . He was appointed the commander of the first column of the Northern Jiangsu division of the New Fourth Army under the leadership of Su Yu . In October , he annihilated a Kuomintang brigade in the Battle of Huangqiao . In 1944 , he commanded the Communist force in the Battle of Cheqiao defeating the Japanese . The next year he was appointed commander of the Central Jiangsu military region and deputy commander of the Jiangsu - Zhejiang military region . Resumption of Civil War . After the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II , talks between the Communists and the Kuomintang broke down and the Chinese Civil War resumed . As a senior commander Ye Fei participated in numerous battles including the Menglianggu Campaign and the Huaihai Campaign . In February 1949 he was appointed Commander of the 10th Army Group of the People ' s Liberation Army . After participating in the Battle of Shanghai in May 1949 , Ye Fei , with Wei Guoqing as political commissar , led the 10th Army Group in the battles of Fuzhou , Zhangzhou , and Xiamen , taking over most of Fujian Province from the Kuomintang defenders . However , his forces suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Guningtou , during which more than ten thousand PLA soldiers were killed or captured when they landed on Kinmen Island off the Fujian coast . The Communists were never able to take over Kinmen and to this day Kinmen remains under the administration of the Republic of China ( Taiwan ) . Ye Fei partially redeemed for the loss by winning the Dongshan Island Campaign in July 1953 . Peacetime career . In 1953 Ye Fei was appointed Communist Party Chief and Governor of Fujian Province . He also concurrently served as deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region . In 1955 , at age 40 , he was among the first group of People ' s Liberation Army commanders to be awarded the rank of General . From July 1 , 1956 , with the creation of the Fuzhou Military Region , he became its first commander . During the Cultural Revolution Ye Fei suffered from persecution for his overseas ties , but was rehabilitated in 1975 and appointed China ' s Minister of Transport . He held the position until February 1979 , when he was appointed by Deng Xiaoping as the political commissar of the People ' s Liberation Army Navy , despite having never served in the Navy before . The following year he was promoted to the position of Commander - in - Chief of the Navy , which he held until August 1982 . From 1983 to 1993 he served as the vice - chairman of the Standing Committee of the 6th and the 7th National People ' s Congress . Return to the Philippines . At the invitation of then - President Corazon Aquino , Ye Fei visited the Philippines in February 1989 as the Vice - chairman of the Chinese Congress . This was the first time he returned to the country of his birth since leaving almost 70 years before . He spent two weeks in the country , visiting his parents ' graves in Tiaong and having a reunion with his younger siblings , who were born after he left for China and had little idea of their brother ' s achievements . Opposition to army crackdown in Tiananmen Square . During the Tiananmen Square protests of spring 1989 , Ye Fei signed a letter opposing the enforcement of martial law by the Army in Beijing . Death and monument . Ye Fei died in Beijing on 18 April 1999 , aged 84 . On 29 March 2000 , a memorial park in Tiaong was dedicated to Ye Fei , including a monument and a vocational school . Present at the inauguration were General Angelo Reyes , Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon , Jr . , Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim , and Chinese ambassador Fu Ying . This was the first in a series of events celebrating 25 years of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the People ' s Republic of China .