Zhang Aiping was a founding general with a strong sense of responsibility and a distinctive personality. He basically missed the Liberation War due to injury, so even if he was an important cadre of Sanye, he was far less famous than Xu Shiyou and Ye Fei at that time. In fact, Zhang Aiping's contribution was even greater after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
In 1955, Zhang Aiping, then deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, commanded the army, navy, and air force to jointly cross the sea and land operations, and captured Yijiangshan Island and Dachen Island in one fell swoop, dealing a heavy blow to the KMT's conspiracy on the mainland. In September 1959, he successively served as deputy director of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission and deputy director of the National Defense Industry Office, presiding over the work of national defense science and technology, equipment and national defense industry. In the project of two bombs and one satellite, Zhang Aiping was one of the main responsible persons of the armed forces, and he organized and led the "two bombs and one satellite" large-scale cooperation and general battle, served as the commander-in-chief of the field test, and successfully organized China's first-generation surface-to-surface missile, the first atomic bomb tower explosion, the air explosion, and the third atomic bomb test. General Zhang Aiping has made significant contributions to the research and development of military modernization and the renewal of military equipment, and has been recognized by leaders.
General Zhang Aiping is very individual, in 1959 during the Lushan Conference, ** was fiercely criticized, everyone else avoided Mr. Peng, only Zhang Aiping and Mr. Peng took the same plane back to Beijing. Zhang Aiping was an important general of Mr. Peng's Red Third Army during the Red Army, and the old chief was in trouble, and Zhang Aiping's resolute insistence on accompanying Mr. Peng also highlighted Zhang Aiping's character.
In 1980, Zhang Aiping, who was in her 70s, submitted her resignation to her superiors many times, but Zhang Aiping not only failed to resign from her current position, but was appointed as the vice premier; Zhang Aiping obeyed the organization's arrangement, and after working for a few more years, he resigned from the organization again, and this time the organization arranged for him to serve as defense minister. It was not until 1987 that the organization approved his resignation report, and Zhang Aiping stepped back and began to serve as a member of the Standing Committee of the ** Advisory Committee. Zhang Aiping's repeated resignations are not because he is old or tired, but because he thinks about the overall situation. He believes that no matter how great his contribution is, he cannot engage in a lifelong system and work until he dies, which is extremely irresponsible to the country and the people; Moreover, at that time, *** advocated the younger cadres, and some people did not want to delegate power, so Zhang Aiping responded to the organization's decision-making with her own actions.
Due to the emotional resistance of some people and respect for the past contributions of the veteran cadres, the Standing Committee of the Advisory Committee was established in 1982 so that the veteran cadres can continue to shine and make suggestions for the development of the country. Zhang Aiping, a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Advisory Committee, refused to attend the meeting, and a staff member persuaded him, and he bluntly said, "If you retreat, you will retreat, and what do you care?" Zhang Aiping did not attend the meeting mainly because she was worried that the old cadres would raise too many opinions, which would inevitably affect the normal decision-making of the young cadres, and slowly they would become timid, which was not conducive to the growth of the young cadres.
After Zhang Aiping retreated to the second line, although he was named as a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Advisory Committee, he did not ask about military affairs and government affairs, and supported his juniors in his own way. He loved photography, calligraphy and writing poetry, and in his later years used poetry to praise the truth, goodness and beauty, and to lash out at the false, the evil and the ugly. A large number of his poems, calligraphy and photographic works recorded important events and activities in the history of the Party and the military, which not only carried forward the revolutionary tradition, but also boosted the morale of the military. What he did was worthy of being a true revolutionary.