Chen Xilian (pronounced [ʈʂʰə̌n ɕíljɛ̌n]; 4 January 1915 – 10 June 1999) was a Chinese military officer and politician, general of the People's Liberation Army.

His unit, which was led by Zhang Guotao, Xu Xiangqian and Li Xiannian, included such future leaders as Qin Jiwei.

[4] At the close of the Long March, Chen – like his colleagues Xu Shiyou and Yu Qiuli – would find himself on the wrong side of the Mao Zedong-Zhang Guotao dispute, and badly battered by Muslim Hui cavalry and warlord armies.

[7] In the summer of 1940, Chen’s unit participated in the victorious Hundred Regiments Campaign near Taiyuan, and by September Chen had succeeded the reassigned Xu Shiyou as 385th Brigade Commander; his political commissar at the time was future Public Security Minister Xie Fuzhi, later to become another powerful leftist.

During the Chinese Civil War, Chen was commander of the 3rd Army and distinguished himself in the Huai–Hai and Yangtze campaigns, which were both crushing victories for the Communists.

In the spring of 1949, after the fall of Nanjing, Chen's forces moved into Zhejiang, and took part in the capture of Hangzhou and Shanghai, and then of the Southwest.

However due to Chen's status as a revered war hero, Deng did not disgrace him any further as he previously did with the Gang of Four, allowing him to retain all the privileges of a retired general and attend the military parade celebrating the 35th anniversary of the People's Republic of China with a VIP seat atop the Tiananmen gate on 1 October, 1984.