Yan Baohang, A legendary anti-fascist hero

The file photo shows Yan Baohang (second from left) and his family members. [Photo exclusively provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Yan Baohang (1895-1968), an intelligence agent of the Chinese Communist Party during World War II, obtained the information that Germany was to attack the Soviets on June 22rd in Chongqing in May of 1941. He sent the intelligence to Yan'an through classified channels on June 6th.

Mao Zedong ordered a message to be sent to the Communist International and the information finally reached Soviet's Stalin.

Thanks to the accuracy of the intelligence, the Soviets made adequate battle preparations in advance and serious damage was avoided. The Soviet Communist Party expressed gratitude to Chinese Communist Party later on June 30.

The Soviets thought highly of Yan's work. A Soviet official stationed in China said to Yan once that your intelligence work is of the first level and Stalin knows about you.

Yan's life is a legend and his stories are still held up as examples of Information Warfare today.

Yan joined the Chinese Communist Party secretly in 1937 and came to Chongqing where the Kuomintang government was in October of 1938, where he had contacts with many high level Kuomintang officials. He was entrusted by Zhou Enlai to do international intelligence work for the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist International.

Days before the Japanese army's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1947, the intelligence service of the Kuomintang deciphered the information about the attack. Yan learned about it and reported to Chinese Communist Party. The information was sent to the Soviets, who informed the US. Meanwhile, the US Navy received the same information from the Kuomintang. Unfortunately, US Navy underestimated the value of the information and did not prepare for the sneak attack.

During the summer of 1944, Yan gathered all the information about the Japanese Kwantung army which was stationed in Northeast China, including the army's defense plans, addresses of fortresses, weapon information and so on.

Yan made a great contribution to the victory of the world Anti-Fascist War. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of victory in Russia's Great Patriotic War, Russia's then president Yeltsin awarded three Jubilee Medals to Yan and his fellow workers.