Order of Independence and Freedom and Related Topics

Peng Dehuai

Prominent Chinese Communist military leader, who served as China's Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959.

By his mid-thirties, Peng was one of the most senior generals in the Jiangxi Soviet (1934-1935).

Peng Dehuai commanded the largest communist offensive in the war against Japan.

A statue of Peng now stands on the Chinese border with Korea, on the place that Peng crossed into North Korea in 1950.

In 1953, Peng signed the armistice agreement which ended the Korean War.

After returning to China from the Korean War, Peng became engaged in a rivalry with Mao Zedong over the political future of China (photo: Hou Bo).

Following the Korean War, Peng rose in prominence and is here seen welcoming Kim Il-sung to Beijing in 1955.

During the Great Leap Forward, many farmers were forced to work in primitive backyard furnaces in order to produce poor-quality steel.

Peng Dehuai (1966) was brought to Beijing in chains by Red Guards, where he would be tortured and publicly humiliated for years.

Peng himself was awarded the First Class Medal of the Order of August 1 (for his achievements in the Chinese Civil War from 1927 to 1937), the First Class Medal of the Order of Independence and Freedom (for his achievements in the Sino-Japanese War), and the First Class Medal of the Order of Liberation (for his achievements in the Chinese Civil War from 1945 to 1949).

Zhu De

Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party.

Zhu (second from right) photographed with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai (second from left) and Bo Gu (left) in 1937.

Order of Independence and Freedom 1st Class.svg Order of Independence and Freedom (1st Class Medal) (1955)

Huang Kecheng

Senior general (大将) in the People's Liberation Army.

From left: Han Zhenji, Liang Xingchu, Huang Kecheng, Zhang Aiping and Wei Guoqing, marking the meeting of the Fifth Column of the Eighth Route Army and the Northern Jiangsu Command of the New Fourth Army in Dongtai, Jiangsu on October 10, 1940.

He was made a senior general in 1955, and awarded the Army Medal, the Order of Independence and Freedom Medal, and the Order of Liberation.

Ye Jianying

Chinese communist revolutionary leader and politician, one of the founding Ten Marshals of the People's Liberation Army.

中国人民解放军一级独立自由勋章的略章.png Order of Independence and Freedom (1st Class Medal) (1955)

Xu Shiyou

General in the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

In September 1955, he was awarded the rank of general, an honor Medal, an Order of Independence and Freedom Medal, a Liberation Medal.

Xiao Jinguang

Revolutionary and military leader, one of the main leaders of the Red Army and the People's Liberation Army, and one of the ten senior general officers of the PLA.

The bronze statue of Xiao Jinguang, located in Yuelu Mountain, Changsha, Hunan, China.

In September 1955, Xiao gained the military award of the ten senior commanders of the PLA, Prime August-1st military Medal (八一勋章), Prime Medal of Freedom and independence (一级独立自由勋章), Prime Liberal Medal (一级解放勋章) at the same time.