- Source: Yang Youlin
Yang Youlin (Chinese: 杨幼麟, Youlin Yang, 1899–1935), nickname Shifu (Chinese: 石夫), was a Chinese politician and a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), being the Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Hunan Hubei Jiangxi Soviet Provincial Government before he was captured and executed in 1935 by the Nationalist government. He was formerly a schoolteacher before joining the CCP in 1925. As a member of the CCP, he was responsible for managing education affairs, teaching the ideals of the communist revolution to his fellow Chinese. Youlin was harassed and was forced to flee to the Soviet Union in 1927, returning in 1929 after studying in Moscow. He became Vice Chairman of the Hunan Hubei Jiangxi Soviet Provincial Government and assumed command of the 16th Army in 1930, and led the Chinese Red Army offensive on Changsha in that year. He fought against the fifth encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet, and was captured by the National Revolutionary Army and executed in 1935.
Early life
Yang Youlin was born in Hami in the year 1899. His father, Yang Xianglin, was a general in the Qing Army.
In 1921, Youlin attended the Hunan Self-Study University.
He would become a teacher at Changsha Yueyun Middle School.
Youlin kept his occupation as a schoolteacher before joining the CCP in 1925 after attending the Shaoshan Revenge Meeting, and would serve as Director of School Affairs during the reorganization of the Xiangxi Xiangchengqian District School Affairs Committee. After joining, he used his identity as a schoolteacher to evade Chiang Kai-Shek's National Revolutionary Army to recruit new members for the CCP.
Military and political career
On March 18, 1926, Youlin was instrumental in the organization of peoples in protesting the warlord society of China. Between 1926 and 1927, he continued his work for the CCP in China up until the May 28th Incident, where he organized his party committee in Wuhan and fled to the USSR for refuge against the KMT. His family, which could not flee, was brutally persecuted by the KMT, with many members being executed. In the Soviet Union, he attended the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University until the summer of 1929, when he returned to China.
Upon his return, he advocated for an armed uprising against the nationalist government, and in 1930 he participated in the Red Army attack on Changsha. Later, the CCP abandoned Changsha in 1931, and Youlin participated in the First Congress of Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers.
Yang Youlin would continue his work as the Vice Chairman of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet Government's Acting Chairman and Vice Chairman.
Death
In 1935, following the 5th Encirclement Campaign, he was arrested by KMT authorities and executed.