Fang Zhimin

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Fang Zhimin (Chinese: 方志敏, Wade–Giles: Fang Chih Min; August 21, 1899 – August 6, 1935) was a Chinese communist military and political leader.

Born in a poor peasant household in Yixian, Jiangxi Province, Fang joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1924 and assisted in setting up a provincial party organization.

After the failure of the Shanghai Uprising in 1927, Fang returned to Jiangxi, where he worked in organizing the peasantry and urged them to take part in armed uprisings.

From 1928 to 1933 Fang conducted guerrilla operations, enacted land reforms, established a base area in the border area of Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, and organized a section of the Chinese Red Army.

Fang used revolution as a cover to rob, rape and murder people in the vicinity of the Nanchang Soviet Area. In 1935, he was convicted and executed by the Republic of China government for participating in the kidnapping and murder of John Cornelius Stam and his wife.

Fang was later elected a member of the Central Committee during the sixth session of the Fifth Party Congress. Fang was captured by the Kuomintang in January 1935 and executed on August 6, 1935. The 2015 opera Fang Zhimin commemorates his life and death.