Nelson Fu

Fu Lianzhang Nelson Fu
Born	September 14, 1894 Changting, Fujian, China
Died	March 29, 1968(1968-03-29) (aged 73) Beijing, PRC
Allegiance	People's Republic of China
Service / branch	People's Liberation Army
Years of service	1933–1968
Rank	Lieutenant General
Battles / wars	Northern Expedition, Long March, Chinese Civil War
Awards	Order of Bayi (2nd Class Medal) Order of Liberation (China) (1st Class Medal)

Nelson Fu
Traditional Chinese	傅連暲
Simplified Chinese	傅连暲
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Fù Liánzhāng

Fu Lianzhang museum in Changting, Fujian

Nelson Fu or Fu Lianzhang (Chinese: 傅连暲; 1894–1968) was a Chinese medical doctor. He was one of the few Western-trained medical doctors to have made the Long March and later, in Beijing, a Vice-Minister of Public Health, to be responsible for the health of the Communist Party elite.^[1] In 1955, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Fu lived and worked in the then-prefectural seat of Changting (now Tingzhou town) in western Fujian Province. He was a senior medical doctor at its British Christian missionary Hospital of the Gospel.

During the Cultural Revolution, Fu was severely persecuted by Vice Chairman Lin Biao as well as by his subordinates, particularly Qiu Huizuo and, despite Mao Zedong's attempts to protect him, he was subsequently beaten and imprisoned with the accusation that Fu was "withholding medicine when Deputy Commander Lin was ill [in order] to harm him". He died in prison on March 29, 1968, at the age of 74.^[2] After Lin's death, Mao posthumously rehabilitated him in 1973.

References

1. Li Zhisui, Anne F. Thurston, Hongchao Dai, The private life of Chairman Mao: the memoirs of Mao's personal physician, ISBN 0-679-40035-4, 1994.
2. Yan Jiaqi; Gao Gao (January 1996). Turbulent Decade: A History of the Cultural Revolution. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 229–231. ISBN 978-0-8248-1695-7.