Yang Shangkun

Yang Shangkun (楊尚昆 1907-) was President of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993, and was permanent Vice-chair of the Central Military Commission.

Extremely influential in the People's Liberation Army, he was removed by "Paramount Leader" Deng Xiaoping in 1992 for attempting to replace Jiang Zemin as party leader. It was known that the Yang brothers had many supporters and allies in the military that their removal forced more than half of the top ranking officers into retirement.

He is considered as one of the Eight Immortals of Communist China.

See also: Politics of China