Yang Shangkun (1907- ), a native of Tongnan County, Sichuan Province, joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1926. He was an alternate member of the Sixth Central Committee of the CPC, a member of the Eighth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Central Committees and a member of the Political Bureaus of the Twelfth and Thirteenth. He has served as Director of the General Office of the Central Committee, alternate member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, and member and Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the Military Commission. In 1982 he became in addition Vice-Chairman in charge of the day-to-day work of the Military Commission. From 1988 to 1993, while retaining his post as Vice-Chairman of the Military Commission, he also served as President of the People's Republic of China.