Ye Chumei

Ye Chumei was born in Hong Kong in 1928. Her father, Ye Jianying, was forced to send her to Hong Kong to seek refuge after the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising. In 1937, she briefly reunited with her father before they were separated again. In 1945, at the age of 17, she was taken to Yan'an to reunite with her father, and later went to Northeast China to become a soldier in the Democratic United Army. In 1948, Ye Chumei was selected for the "4821 Plan" to study abroad in the Soviet Union. During her studies at Moscow University, she contracted tuberculosis but overcame the illness with resilience, and eventually returned to China with the help of Kong Qing. After returning, she worked at the Shenyang Second Machine Tool Factory. During the Cultural Revolution, she was persecuted and imprisoned. After her release in 1970, she returned to work, serving as deputy director of the Machine Tool Bureau of the Ministry of Machinery Industry and other positions. In 1981, she was promoted to a departmental-level leadership position. Ye Chumei came from a prominent family; her father, Ye Jianying, was Marshal of the People's Republic of China, and her siblings have distinguished achievements in various fields. On September 18, 2024, Ye Chumei passed away in Beijing at the age of 96 due to illness.