At age 40, he was among the first PLA commanders to be awarded the rank of General by the newly established People's Republic of China and later served as Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Navy.

He also served in a number of civilian posts including Governor and Communist Party Chief of Fujian Province, and Minister of Transport.

Yap converted to Catholicism in order to get approval of the parents to marry Ye Fei's mother Francisca Mercado, a Filipina from a local Catholic family.

][3] In 1934 the Communist Chinese Red Army suffered a series of defeats by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang forces, and started the Long March.

Ye Fei was made a regiment commander in the newly formed New Fourth Army and moved to the Jiangnan region to continue his guerrilla warfare, this time against the Japanese occupying force.

[4] In 1940 Ye Fei moved across the Yangtze River to northern Jiangsu Province to continue fighting the Japanese as well as the Kuomintang, the nominal ally of the Communists.

[4] However, his forces suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Guningtou, during which more than ten thousand PLA soldiers were killed or captured when they landed on Kinmen Island off the Fujian coast.

During the Cultural Revolution Ye Fei suffered from persecution for his overseas ties,[3] but was rehabilitated in 1975 and appointed China's Minister of Transport.

He spent two weeks in the country, visiting his parents' graves in Tiaong and having a reunion with his younger siblings, who were born after he left for China and had little idea of their brother's achievements.

[3][7] During the Tiananmen Square protests of spring 1989, Ye Fei signed a letter opposing the enforcement of martial law by the Army in Beijing.