Body of former senior military leader Zhang Zhen cremated

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The body of Zhang Zhen, former vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), was cremated Wednesday morning in Beijing.

Zhang died at the age of 101 in Beijing at 5 p.m. last Thursday.

President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other senior leaders Zhang Dejiang, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, as well as former leaders Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao attended the funeral at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in west Beijing.

They paid their last respects to the remains, and offered his family their condolences.

Born in 1914, Zhang joined the CPC in 1930. He was conferred the title of lieutenant general in 1955 and the title of general in 1988.

He had achieved outstanding military exploits as an army commander during the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation in the 1930s and 1940s.

After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Zhang was extensively involved in the planning and preparation for the liberation of Taiwan and military action in southeastern China's coastal areas. He fought in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea in early 1950s.

He suffered political persecution and was demoted to work in a machinery factory in Wuhan during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), and later served as deputy chief of the Wuhan military area command in 1970.

Zhang has also served as deputy chief of the general logistics department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the PLA's deputy chief of general staff and head of the National Defense University in the 1970s and 1980s, before he was named vice chairman of the CMC in 1992.