Huang K'o-ch'eng (1902-), Communist military ofl^cer who served under P'eng Te-huai in the early 1930's and the early 1950's. He held important posts in the People's Republic of China and in 1958 became chief of staff" of the People's Liberation Army. He was dismissed from his party and government offices in 1959 on the grounds that he had been a participant in an anti-party group headed by P'eng Te-huai. Yunghsing hsien, Hunan, was the native place of Huang K'o-ch'eng. Little is known of his family background and early life. After being graduated from middle school, he enrolled in May 1924 at the Whampoa Military Academy as a member of the first class. He presumably served as an officer of the National Revolutionary Army in the Northern Expedition, which began in 1926.

After the Nationalist-Communist split in 1927, Huang, who had joined the. Chinese Communist party, took part in the so-called autumn harvest uprising in Hunan [see Mao Tse-tung). In the spring of 1928 he was among the Communist refugees who followed Mao Tse-tung to Chingkangshan. From 1930 until 1934 he served as a divisional commander in the Communist forces in Kiangsi and engaged in campaigns against the Nationalist forces. He served under P'eng Te-huai (q.v.) as an officer of the First Front Army during the Long March of 1 934-35. After the Communist forces reached their new base in northern Shensi, Huang received staff and training assignments at Yenan, where he remained until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war.

In the summer of 1937 Huang was assigned to command units of the Communist Eighth Route Army. His forces moved southward from Shensi to penetrate areas behind the Japanese lines. After Nationalist and Chinese Communist forces clashed in southern Anhwei [see Yeh T'ing) in January 1941, Huang was ordered to reorganize his forces; they became the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army, which was led by Ch'en Yi (q.v.). From 1941 until 1945, Huang commanded that division in operations in northern Kiangsu. He also served as military commander and secretary of the Chinese Communist party committee in northern Kiangsu. In 1945, at the Seventh National Congress of the Chinese Communist party, he was elected an alternate member of the Central Committee. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Huang K'o-ch'eng was ordered to lead his troops into Manchuria, where Communist military operations were under the over-all direction of Lin Piao (q.v.). From 1946 to 1948 Huang served as a military commander in the important campaigns against the Nationalists in the Northeast. By 1948 he had become commander of Communist field operations in the Jehol-Liaoning district.

Huang continued to serve under Lin Piao when the Communist forces in Manchuria, then designated the Fourth Field Army, moved through the Shanhaikuan pass into north China. After the Communist victory at Tientsin in January 1949, Huang was named chairman of the military control commission which was responsible for consolidating Communist authority there. However, he soon moved south with the Twelfth Army Group of the Communist Fourth Field Army. Huang K'o-ch'eng and Hsiao Ching-kuang accepted the surrender of the Nationalist forces under Ch'eng Ch'ien (q.v.) and Ch'en Ming-jen in Hunan. Huang became secretary of the Hunan provincial committee of the Chinese Communist party, political commissar of the Hunan military district, and vice chairman of the military control commission for Changsha. In February 1950 he was made a member of the newly established Central-South Military and Administrative Committee, the principal governing authority for the provinces of that region. In April, he was named to the provincial government council in Hunan. In 1949 Huang became a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After the death of Jen Pi-shih in 1950, he was elevated to full membership on the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party. When the Chinese intervened in the Korean war in October-November 1950, Huang returned to active duty and led the Twelfth Army Group across the Yalu as part of the Communist drive against the United Nations forces. From 1952 to 1954 he was a member of the State Planning Commission and deputy chief of staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Council. After the reorganization of the government structure at Peking in 1954, Huang served as a delegate, representing the Central-South Military District and the Fourth Field Army, to the First National People's Congress. In September, he was elected to the membership on the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. At the same time, he was made a vice minister of national defense and a member of the National Defense Council. He served in the central military command of the People's Liberation Army as director of the general rear services department from 1954 until 1956. In 1 955 he was promoted to the rank of general in the Chinese Communist armed forces and was awarded all top military decorations of the People's Republic of China. At the Eighth National Congress of the Chinese Communist party in September 1956, Huang K'o-ch'eng was elected to both the Central Committee and the Secrectariat.

In October 1958 Huang was named chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, succeeding Su Yü (q.v.). He held this office and continued to serve as a vice minister of national defense until September 1959. Then he was removed from all official positions at Peking, and P'eng Te-huai was forced to resign as minister of national defense. Huang was identified as one of the principals in an "antiparty group" allegedly headed by P'eng Tehuai. He later was named a vice governor of Shansi.