Communist general whose 359th Brigade farmed the wasteland at 南泥湾 in 1941. In the 1950s he built up the 新疆生产建设兵团, and he was vice president of China from 1988 to 1993.
In his later years Wang Zhen served as Vice President of the state.
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His brigade went to 南泥湾 with the slogan 一把镢头一支枪 'a mattock in one hand, a rifle in the other'. When he died in 1993, his ashes were scattered over the 天山 mountains of Xinjiang.
