Born Ye Yiwei (Chinese: 叶宜伟) into a wealthy Christian Hakka merchant family in an old rural village at Jiaying county, renamed as the Meixian District, Meizhou, Guangdong, in the modern day.

After returning to China in 1932 he joined the Jiangxi Soviet, serving as Chief of Staff of Zhang Guotao's Fourth Front Army.

However, after Zhang's fighters met up with Mao Zedong's force during the Long March, the two leaders disagreed on the subsequent movement of the Chinese Red Army.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Ye was placed in charge of Guangdong, which was to cost him his political career under Mao's reign.

Ye understood that the economic conditions in the province were very different from those in the rest of China, since most Cantonese landlords were peasants themselves who participated in production without exploiting their tenants.

Ye led the group of generals and Party elders that overthrew Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four; during initial planning at his residence, he and Li Xiannian communicated by writing, although they sat next to each other, because of the possibility of bugging.

Because the physical demands of Defense Minister were too great for the octogenarian Ye, he resigned from that position in 1978 and was appointed Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, filling a post left unoccupied since Zhu De's death in 1976.

[3]: 228  The Nine Points Proposal also talked of trade, transportation, and postal services as "three links" across the strait and "four exchanges" in the areas of culture, academics, economics, and sports.

Zhu De Peng Dehuai Lin Biao Liu Bocheng He Long Chen Yi Luo Ronghuan Xu Xiangqian Nie Rongzhen Ye Jianying