Miracle campaign: The liberation of Hainan Island

Operations map of the Hainan island liberation campaign. [Photo by Ma Zhiping/chinadaily.com.cn]

The Qiongya revolutionary armed force had grown up on Hainan Island since the 1920s under the leadership of the CPC and played a key role as an internal force in the process of the island's liberation.

"All our sea-crossing and landing operations have been carried out with the close cooperation of the Qiongya Column and support of the local people on the island. They are the fundamental guarantee of victory in the campaign," said officials with the 40th Army when summing up the landing operation on Hainan. "Without them, the achievements would not be so remarkable and the costs of the battles might have been much greater."

"Whenever the troops marched on, following them would be a long line of heavily loaded stretcher teams and transportation teams formed by the Li people, the original inhabitants of the island," wrote a war correspondent in Xinhua Daily.

Fu Shihe, at 93, one of the Li people at Qundian village, Dafeng town, Chengmai, still remembers the days when he used agility to stand toe-to-toe with his enemies to send water and food to the PLA soldiers 71 years ago.