In 1977, when the slogan of "two whatevers" was proposed, it was quickly questioned by many people in the party, such as Deng Gong, who had not yet made a comeback, and Chen Yun, a veteran revolutionary, who clearly expressed their disapproval of this slogan. Similarly, in Heilongjiang, more than 1,000 kilometers away from the capital, there is also a leading cadre who took the lead in opposing the "two whatevers." This leading cadre later reached the deputy national level, and he was Yang Yichen, then the first secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee.
Yang Yichen is a native of Liaoning, born in 1914, when he was a teenager, he excelled in his schoolwork and had lofty ideals and ambitions. Seeing that the country with internal and external troubles was sinking again and again, he set in his heart the goal of rejuvenating China as his lifelong cause.
In the 30s of the last century, he was admitted to the Chinese University led by Mr. Sun Yat-sen, which is a university with a glorious revolutionary tradition, although it existed for a short time, but at that time, the teachers and students of the school were one of the main forces of various patriotic revolutionary movements in Beijing, and the school also cultivated a large number of talents, Yang Yichen was naturally one of them.
During his time at CUHK, Yang Yichen was influenced by progressive revolutionary ideas, became a party member, and repeatedly organized and led student movements and actively engaged in revolutionary activities. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he left Beiping and went to Yan'an, where he received a more scientific and rigorous Marxist-Leninist education, armed his mind and spirit, and then was sent to the southern Hebei region to carry out the anti-Japanese struggle behind enemy lines.
In the base area behind enemy lines, in the face of the extremely vicious Japanese puppet army, he did not have much practical revolutionary work experience, and he was not afraid and bravely led the army and people in the base area in the struggle against the enemy. During that time, he not only caused the Japanese puppet army to repeatedly hit a wall, but also further strengthened our party's base area.
After driving out the invaders, Yang Yichen heeded the call of the organization and led the cadres to return to his hometown in Northeast China to devote himself to the construction of people's power. When the Liaoshen Campaign began, on the one hand, he did a lot of work to support the front, and on the other hand, he also made a lot of efforts in the logistics support of the army, and effectively helped the liberation of the northeast region. Since then, he has stayed in Northeast China for a long time to work, and has served as the secretary of the provincial party committee in Liaoning, leading the people of the province to restore and develop industry and agriculture. After 1954, he was transferred to Heilongjiang to work, and successively served as vice governor and director of the Provincial Planning Commission.
When he was in charge of aquatic work in Heilongjiang, Yang Yichen worked hard to support this industry in the northeast. In the early days of the industry, he gave people great confidence with various practical actions, and finally made Heilongjiang develop a thriving aquatic industry in the ice and snow. After suffering shocks during turbulent times, he returned to work with the help of Premier Zhou and became the first secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee in 1977.
In the great debate on truth at the end of the 70s, Yang Yichen took a clear-cut stand against the erroneous policy of "two whatevers," and not only always stood in the forefront of emancipating the mind, but also caused considerable repercussions in the relevant articles published in the People's Daily. During the days when he presided over the Heilongjiang Provincial CPC Committee, he persisted in taking economic construction as the central task, and under the general policy of reform and opening up, he gave full play to the advantages of the locality, vigorously developed all walks of life, and made outstanding contributions to the local economic construction and social development.
Yang Yichen has worked in Heilongjiang for more than 30 years, and has been unanimously praised by the local people. In the 80s of the last century, he left Heilongjiang and went to the Supreme People's Procuratorate as the chief prosecutor, when he was already a gray-haired septuagenarian, and his physical condition was not as good as before. In the five years he has served as chief procurator, he has conducted research in more than 20 provinces across the country, and in the last years of his career, he still made important contributions to the construction and development of the mainland's procuratorial system.
In 1988, Yang Yichen stepped back and gradually left his job to live a low-key retirement. In 1997, a few months before Hong Kong's return to the motherland, this beloved veteran cadre died of illness at the age of 83.